certain property tax accounts and not other accounts. Additionally it would not appear to be fair to favour taxpayers who just started experiencing financial challenges compared to those that may have already been facing them for some time. As such, it is being recommended that the interest waiver be applied uniformly to all property tax accounts through to June 30, 2020.
Risk Analysis:
There will be additional workload requirements as a result of the provision of short-term financial relief for property owners. The degree to which property owners choose to change their pre-authorized payment plans and defer payments to June 30, 2020 will determine the level to which additional work will need to be done by staff.
Amendments will be required to the 2020 Interim Property Tax by-law which has been previously adopted. Those amendments will be addressed in consultation with the Legal Department.
Property owners will need to be advised of the revisions to the due dates and available options. Administration will look to using media releases, media outlets and web-site updates to convey this information to taxpayers. Administration is not recommending that individual mailings be sent to all property owners. There may likely be some confusion in the coming weeks as messaging of the interim tax relief measures are conveyed to property owners. This may increase call volumes and service requests submitted through 311.
Property owners who have opted to have their property tax payments remitted by designated financial institutions will need to contact those institutions to discuss what options are available for any deferral of payments. Those deferrals will likely be considered in conjunction with existing mortgage payments and programs being offered for the deferral of payments.
Financial Matters:
The total for the 2020 Interim Property Tax Billing was $208,860,635. Payments received to date is $125,599,300 leaving an uncollected balance of $83,261,335.
To date, Administration estimates that $39,581,402 would have been received through the various pre-authorized payment plans. An additional $5,678,337 will likely be received from financial institutions paying on behalf of taxpayers. There are currently $2,073,365 in post dated cheques being held on site. Assuming that all property owners would have paid their property tax balance in full, an estimated $35,928,231 remains to be paid directly by property owners for the April installment. As at December 31, 2019, a total of $33 million or 7.7% of the 2019 total property tax levy remained outstanding (this includes all prior years' arrears). On a conservative basis it is projected that the same percentage will continue to remain in arrears and outstanding.