Next Government Must Roll Back Property Tax
REALTORS® are calling on the political parties to stop the steady rise in municipal taxes, which are eating away the savings made in 2009 when education property taxes were shifted to the provincial level.
Bill Madder of the Association of Saskatchewan REALTORS® said the gains from education tax changes will soon be lost unless the other half of the property tax equation is balanced.
“We are looking for a political party that will replace the property tax as the main source of money for local government,” Mr. Madder said. “The answer is revenue sharing, where municipalities receive an assured share of provincial revenue and the property tax is capped.”
He said property tax remains the second largest tax levied in the province, after personal income tax. It is trending sharply up. He cited several reasons the tax needs to be capped:
·
Affordability: Property tax
increases make housing less affordable. Every dollar taken in tax is a dollar
less the buyer cannot put toward principal payments.
·
Upgrading: Taxable assessments
rise when older buildings are upgraded, penalizing the improvement and making
harder to keep older and more affordable housing stock at a high level of
quality.
·
Investment: Businesses
are used as a property tax cash cow, paying higher rates than other property. The
present tiered business rates are discriminatory and increases make them worse.
·
Equity: Property tax
has no relation to income the property earns. It amounts to a straight
deduction from the asset’s value – a capital tax. Capital taxes are a negative
for investment and have been reduced or eliminated on other forms of capital.
·
Unsustainable: Urban centres
cannot support needed infrastructure using property tax. Relying on it means
lower quality of life, making Saskatchewan communities uncompetitive in
attracting growth.
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