City to Issue Property Tax Credits for Library Tax

The City Administration will be issuing tax credits and /or refunds for an overbilling related to the Library portion of the Property Tax bill for 2020.  City Council has the ability to issue credits to property owners, which for the average assessed home, is roughly two dollars for the year.

“With full transparency, City Administration wants to notify Saskatoon taxpayers of an overbilling of the 2020 property taxes for the Saskatoon Public Library totalling $270,914.25,” says Kerry Tarasoff, Chief Financial Officer.”

Each year, the Saskatoon Public Library (SPL) tax rate used for the City’s annual Property Tax Notice is calculated by multiplying the mill rate by the mill rate factors for each class of property.  The finalized mill rate is then determined by dividing the approved property levy budget by the City’s total taxable assessment.

The 2020 SPL tax rate included the combined budgets for the property levy and supplemental property levy - when only the property levy was to be billed.  Usually, the supplemental property levy amount is realized and collected throughout the year from separate billings as new construction is completed and that is why it is excluded from the regular tax billing process.

“It should be noted that City Administration has taken steps to improve the tax billing process to avoid a reoccurrence,” Tarasoff adds. “Once launched, our new enterprise resource planning initiative, Fusion, will also assist in avoiding this issue by streamlining efficiencies into the many manual processes currently in place at the City.”

The Chief Financial Officer will present City Council with a report at its meeting June 29, 2020.  It will detail options that, if approved, would clear the way for credits and/or refunds to residential and commercial property tax payers as follows:

1. For refunds under $10, customers would be able to choose whether to leave the credit on their property tax account until they receive their 2021 Property Tax Notice, or have the credit transferred to their utility account.

1. In certain cases, where the refund amount is greater than $10, a refund cheque would be issued.

View the full Administration Report here.