By rdnewsNOW Staff

Municipal and Business Improvement Area

Red Deer city council approves tax rates at zero per cent increase

Apr 11, 2022 | 8:52 PM

Red Deer city council approved zero per cent increases for two tax rate bylaws at their meeting on Monday.

Approving the City budget in November with a zero per cent municipal tax increase for 2022, council stated they recognized the need to support economic recovery for Red Deerians and wanted to minimize financial impact on taxpayers.

“Our objective is to lessen the financial burden on our citizens and businesses, while ensuring The City can continue to provide essential services like police, emergency response and critical infrastructure maintenance,” said Mayor Ken Johnston.

When combined with requisitions, The City must collect on behalf of other organizations, so there will be a tax decrease of 0.30 per cent for residential and non-residential properties. Multi-family properties will see a tax increase of 0.53 percent.

Applied to roughly 42,000 properties in the city, 54 per cent of property tax revenue comes from residential properties, six percent from multi-family properties, and 40 per cent from non-residential properties.

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The total municipal property tax requirement for 2022 is approximately $139,558,027. The City cites the most recent provincial data in 2020 which shows Red Deer’s overall level of property taxation was 12 per cent lower than comparable cities, with taxes per capita at $1,339 in comparison to the average of $1,526.

For 2022, tax penalty rates have been lowered from seven per cent to five per cent. Penalties are applied to current year unpaid taxes on July 1 and September 1 and on taxes in arrears (unpaid taxes from last year) on January 1 and July 1. The City says the lower penalty rate will provide continued financial support for those having difficulty paying by the due date.

“We have made this change to provide financial relief to taxpayers who may be struggling as a result of impacts of the pandemic,” said Joanne Parkin, Revenue and Assessment Manager. “We encourage anyone who may not be able to pay their taxes by the deadline to pay as much as they can to reduce penalties, and to reach out to our office to discuss payment options.”

Council also approved the 2022 Business Improvement Area (BIA) Tax Rate bylaw. The BIA tax applies to the nearly 400 taxable businesses in the downtown to fund the Downtown Business Association (DBA) budget, which was approved by council in December. There was no increase on the tax revenue requirement of $252,000 and the minimum tax of $192.25.

“An increase in the number of businesses reopening or moving into the BIA may indicate signs that downtown business is beginning to stabilize and recover from the pandemic,” said John Sennema, Economic Development Manager. “That in conjunction with a stronger economy will hopefully continue this trend.”

The deadline for 2022 property taxes and BIA taxes is June 30. Any unpaid taxes will be subject to a five per cent penalty on July 1. Owners can join the Tax Instalment Plan (TIP) until June 15 to make tax payments through to the end of the year in equal monthly payments with no penalty.

Tax notices will be mailed May 24. Approximately 6,500 households have opted to receive their notices electronically, and the remaining notices will be distributed by mail.

Property owners wishing to connect with The City about their tax bill can email tax@reddeer.ca or call 403-342-8126.

More information about the Tax program is available on the City’s website at www.reddeer.ca/tax.