Understanding Your Property Tax Bill

Property taxes may change due to one or a combination of these factors:

  • A particular property assessment (market value) changed more or less than the average (set by MPAC)
  • A change in the annual budget or requirements for municipal operations, Regional operations or education and waste management amounts (set by Town, Niagara Region and Province)

 

Your Tax Bill:

Two parts to your bill that make up your payment:

  1. Tax calculation (based on MPAC property assessment AND municipal/regional tax increase)
  2. Payment plan

Tax increases

The municipal tax levy (includes Town of Lincoln, Niagara Region, and Education) may increase each year depending on approved budgets. Additionally, MPAC conducted their 4-year re-assessment in 2016 resulting in increases to local property assessments for the 2017-21 tax years. It was a four-year phased in approach.

For those on the 10-month installment plan

  • January – June installments are based on prior year taxes
  • July – October installments are based on current tax year

 

How does the Town of Lincoln use the MPAC’s property assessment?

MPAC’s website provides information about the most recent 2016 assessment.

  • MPAC mails a Property Assessment Notice to property owners in Ontario every four years. The Notice you received in 2016 is MPAC’s assessed value of your property as of January 1, 2016.
  • The assessed value and classification of your property is used as the basis for calculating your property taxes
  • To help provide an additional level of property tax stability and predictability, the Ontario Government has introduced a phase-in program for market increases and decreases
  • An increase in assessed value is introduced gradually, while a decrease in assessed value is introduced immediately

MPAC encourages property owners to log on to aboutmyproperty.ca to learn more about how your property was assessed, and to see the information MPAC has on file and compare it to others in your neighbourhood.

Additionally, if you are interested in seeing the overall impact across Lincoln for residential properties, visit this link to see a map of Lincoln showing:

  • Percentage change by area from 2016-17
  • Number of properties in the area and the percent change for all residential, single family and condominiums

Your Potential Increase in July’s payment (10-month plan):

Two reasons:

  • A change in the assessed value of your property by MPAC. This would be reflected in your July tax installment for the first time this year, resulting in an increase in your payment
  • January to June’s installments are based on the previous year tax rate and are divided into 6 installments versus four installment 

*(brackets) indicate a decrease and figures are in dollars

Breaking down your payments (example purposes only, not actual)

Scenario: 

The following example provides a breakdown of payments if your taxes were:

$1,300 in 2016
$1,500 in 2017
$1,700 in 2018

  • For the first 6 months of the year, your installment is calculated using the previous year’s tax rate, divided by 10 (for installments).
  • To calculate the next 4 installments, the total 2017 taxes owed minus the 6 installments you’ve already paid, and then divided by four

Example:

Payment Year

Installment period

Tax rate year

Installment calculations

Payment

2017

Jan-June

2016

1,300÷10

$130

June-Oct

2017

1,500-780(130x6) =720

720÷4

$180

2018

Jan-June

2017

1,500÷10

$150

June-Oct

2018

1,700-900(150x6) =800

800÷4

$200

More information:

About Tax Bill

About Property Assessments

  • The Town of Lincoln does not have jurisdiction over property assessments. Residents with concern over their assessment should contact MPAC directly at their Customer Contact Centre Toll Free 1 866 296-MPAC (6722), TTY 1 877 889-MPAC (6722), Monday to Friday – 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST or through their online form (https://www.mpac.ca/ContactUs) .
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