Property Taxes and Property Assessments: What is the Relationship?

It is January, you check your mail and you have an envelope from BC Assessment. You open it and see your assessment has gone up 40%. When you pick yourself up off the floor, you are saying to yourself, my taxes are going up 40%!

Well, lets stop right there. There is a common misconception people have that a significant change in your assessed value will result in a proportionately significant change in your property taxes. The most important factor is not how much your assessed value has changed, but how your assessed value has changed relative to the average change for your property class in the village.

BC Assessment has some good information that better explains the relationship between property taxes and property assessment. There are even a couple of short videos on this. Check it out at their website by clicking on the following link.

Property Assessments and Property Taxes: A not-so complicated relationship (bcassessment.ca)