Burnaby sits in the middle of the pack of B.C.’s biggest cities when it comes to tax fairness and business, according to a new report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
With the Oct. 20 election looming, the CFIB released a report on what it termed as the “massive property tax burden business owners’ face in B.C.”
“The findings show businesses in B.C.’s 20 largest municipalities pay nearly two-and-a-half times more taxes than they should,” says a CFIB news release.
CFIB says it analyzed the percent of total property taxes business owners paid versus the portion of property value they represent, otherwise known as the “property tax share” or “assessment share.”
“In a fair system, the values should be roughly the same, where business owners pay taxes based on the value of the property they own or lease,” said the news release. “Unfortunately, in the 20 largest municipalities this was far from the reality. In 2018, business owners across B.C. paid close to 30 per cent of the total property tax bill, yet accounted for just over 12 per cent of the total property value. The difference between the two, termed the ‘Property Tax Fairness Ratio’ reveals business owners pay approximately 2.4 times more municipal property taxes than what would be reasonable based on the value of their property.”
Burnaby was 11th on the list of 20 cities, with 20 being considered the worst. Burnaby, according to the report, had a 40 per cent “business share of property taxes” and 15.8 per cent “business share of total property assessment for a “tax fairness ratio” of 2.53. Saanich was listed as the worst with a 3.46 ratio. New Westminster was 18th at 2.97. Prince George was first at 1.63.
The full report is available here
