SIPOA AGM 2013
Presentation notes, Art Chambers

Real Property Taxation Branch, Ministry of Finance
Role of Property Taxation Branch
 Responsible for property based taxation and benefit programs
 The major taxation program from your point of view is rural property taxation, where the branch is the largest “municipality” in the province
 Other taxation programs include provincial property taxes collected by municipalities and the property transfer tax program
 Major benefit programs are the home owner grant program, the property tax deferment programs and the first time home buyer program
My Role in the Branch
 Rural property taxation includes financing to local governments, tax billing, payment processing, collections, home owner grant adjudication , and responding to rural property owner queries
 My rural responsibilities are the rural tax billings, providing financing to local governments, as well as the administration of property forfeiture
 I am also responsible for billing and collecting school and police taxes that municipalities collect on behalf of the province
 My major clients, in addition to rural property owners, are BC Assessment, local governments who deliver property tax services, and First Nations
 The billing function is much broader than the annual billing – it includes grant billings, supplementary assessment rolls and investigation of assessment, taxation and local government revenue issues
Determination of Property Taxes
 My role is to be a centralized billing and collection agency on behalf of government entities that provide services
 BC Assessment determines who is subject to property taxation, the value of the property, the classification of the property and who the owner(s) are
 The Property Taxation Branch (as well as municipalities) take the budget requirements from all the taxing authorities that require funding to provide services and prepare tax notices to all property owners for properties in their jurisdictions
 Several factors influence the level of property taxes – revenue requirements of service providers, property classification and the change in your assessment value relative to everyone else in your area
 A stronger factor than normal in your area is the level of PILTs (payments in lieu of taxes)