City of Montreal to delay payments for property taxes

The City of Montreal announced Wednesday that it will be giving property owners a bit of breathing room to pay their municipal tax bill.

Officials are offering a deferment for both installments of the 2021 tax bill.

Businesses and property owners will have until June 1 to pay their first installment, normally due on March 1, while the second installment will have to be paid by Sept. 1, rather than June 1.

In a written statement, officials said the deferral is meant to offer some respite to property owners and small businesses who are struggling to recover as the novel coronavirus pandemic continues.

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“We realize that the pandemic will not end overnight and that more difficult months are ahead. That’s why I asked our teams to offer these deadlines to Montreal owners. This is the right thing to do given the difficult times we are going through collectively,” said Benoit Dorais, chairman of the executive committee.

The city says pushing back payments was one of the recommendations issued in the report From confinement to recovery: for a resilient metropolis — a study produced by a group of economists led by Luc Godbout, chair in taxation and public finance at the Université de Sherbrooke.

In a press release Wednesday morning, the official Opposition signalled its intent to ask for a deferral at the next council meeting.

“Postponing tax payments is the right thing to do if we want to remove significant financial stress from Montrealers and small businesses already hit hard by the pandemic and now by the curfew,” said Lionel Perez, leader of Ensemble Montréal.