Tax burden eased for most

Most homes in central areas of Westmount –between Clarke and Lansdowne Avenues, Côte St. Antoine Road to The Boulevard – will experience tax hikes of 4 to 5 per cent this year, based on valuation increases between 44 and 48 per cent, but most other homes are going to have minimal increases or even decreases in their tax burden.

Because of the “stepping up� of the new tax assessments, whereby only a quarter of the difference in valuations is being applied in each of the coming years, the rebalancing of the tax between ratepayers will have to continue at approximately the same pace in order to raise the same amount of money from year to year.

The Examiner’s survey of the new property taxes – bills will be sent out later this month – shows that residential properties whose valuations increased by about 29 per cent will break even in terms of taxes, as will apartment buildings. For commercial properties, valuations can increase by as much as 40 per cent before they result in an increase in taxes, though at least in the sample examined, many of the commercial premises did go up more than that.

While many homeowners feared that huge valuation increases would translate into equally huge tax increases, the survey shows they have little to dread overall, though the amount heading from the tax bills to the Montreal Agglomeration for such services as police and fire, public transit and major thoroughfares (not to mention the valuation department itself) will go up about 2 per cent while the city has to sacrifice that much to make ends meet.

The survey shows a few anomalies which will result in double-digit tax increases, but these are certainly the exception. Of 40 single-family dwellings in the sample, 11 actually come in with small tax reductions while another 16 will see increases of less than 2 per cent. With the exception of 59 Belvedere Road, whose valuation has increased an astonishing 72 percent, the biggest increases are for houses on Thornhill and Argyle Avenues. Others in sectors north and east of that pocket have increases almost as high, but for the rest there is not much change. The same can be said for duplexes and triplexes, though for condos derived from duplexes or triplexes the taxes are up by 3 percent in many cases, and 12 per cent in the case of 474 Wood Avenue – but this is an exception.

Apartment-type condominiums vary widely with tax increases as high as 8 per cent at 1 Wood Avenue and 267 Olivier/4216 de Maisonneuve, a 3-per cent reduction at 4700 St. Catherine. And most retail outlets around Westmount will have tax increases, the survey indicates, while most office buildings will have decreases.