Following the payment deadline of Sept. 30, the City of Calgary is reporting $122 million in property taxes that have not yet been paid to the city.
According to city officials, $77 million of that outstanding amount is from residential properties.
Last month, Calgary city council voted unanimously cut its penalty on back taxes from seven to three-point-five per cent.
Prior to that decision, council also extended the property tax payment deadline from June 30 to the end of September due to effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and precursory economic downturn.
According to city administration, a typical year sees the total amount of property tax that has been paid by the deadline date at about 95 per cent.
This year, that number dropped slightly to 89 per cent for residential properties and just over 91 per cent for non-residential properties.
“It’s a big number, but we anticipate we’ll be able to collect on most of that,” Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said.
City officials told Global News the numbers provided only represent the accounts that elected to pay property taxes in one lump sum.
“I imagine a lot of that which is outstanding, a lot of people just made a rational choice that they’d rather pay the 3.5 per cent penalty than pay at that time,” Nenshi said.
“I’m not actually all that worried about it.”
Meanwhile, the Tax Installment Payment Program (TIPP), which allows for monthly payments, is seeing the highest participation ever with with approximately 284,000 accounts enrolled as of Oct. 1.
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