Taxes

[cottonpicken]

Mbratrud,posted this link below,thought it should get bumped.

http://samaview.sama.sk.ca/sama/Default.aspx


Just zoom in on your property for the new assessment,and have the defibulator near by.

[cottonpicken]

Dumb question.

On my old rm map our home quarter assessment was
the same as any other quarter.

On this new map the home quarter assessment is 10
times higher,because of the yard site.

So are taxes being raised drastically on farmers home
quarters.

[cottonpicken]

I'm ASSuming no,because it would have hit the news
like a tonne of bricks.

[mbratrud]

I have not heard anything from the RM, but I noticed the same thing. Hopefully they will look at the mill rates.

[Oliver88]

I was told by a RM reeve that the mill rate will be
reduced to offset the assessment change so the
average person will have no increase or
decrease. (if there is an increase it will be due to
an increase in costs of operating graders or
mowing ditches.)

The change in assessment on my agriculture land
was an increase of 45% it appears.....my
residential improvement shot way up which I
though was strange since its on my grandparents
old yard which hasn't been improved in a few
decades? I didn't appeal this since I'm not taxed
on the improvements since I don't live there.

[wilagro]

ado089: East-central AB...never floods here. My land is sandy-loam...snow good. Makes crops grow.

[Oliver88]

Cottenpicken- Look at the net taxable assessment
on the sheet that was sent to you by your RM in
March.
If your net taxable assessment is a larger
increase on your residence vs your farmland you
might want to appeal. (60 day appeal period and
costs $100)

[oneoff]

It just isn't possible to explain Sask land and improvement assessment and the tax bill derived in combination with mill rates, millrate factors, property classes, reduction factors and budgets.
But it would be a good exercise for those who demand condensing it to one sentence.
And so it will remain a mystery to most taxpayers.

Look at the SAMA View link; follow the instructions and I'll bet not one person in ten is capable of finding the picture of their residence; let alone noticing the million dollar commercial/industrial shop on land assessed as agricultural (with a 55% deduction instead of the 100% full rate meant to be applied). And though there was a picture taken; there isn't any trace of a SAMA assessment sheet on the shop property.

So it is possible to have a million dollar business building (and maybe even be eligible for a tax break for the first years) and pay 10 times less on that business and most of a quarter section; than a modest residence on a couple of acres.

Apparently not everthing is meant to be fair and equitable; and when "descretion" can be used; or whent a bylaw clearly says is apparently open to interpretation; and those who know that a mistake has been made (deliberate or otherwise) and is not promptly corrected (through cowardice, nepotism reasons or whatever the excuse of the day might be)....then the result is predictable.

[farmaholic]

Nice bump in assessments--sign of the
times. Land is selling for 2.5 to 3 times
more than the new assessments here. I
don't anticipate the increase in
assessments being a cash grab from RMs
with a strong financial position but the
poorer ones or School Boards may look at
it differently. I consider myself lucky,
ours doesn't have to rely solely or mostly
on Ag land for their tax base.

[furrowtickler]

School boards are going to be licking their chops. They will want a piece of the pie...

[cottonpicken]

In weyburn to save money they are getting rid of the
junior high and making a giant k-9 to school,luckily
my daughter will have a couple hyper-aggresive big
brothers when the time comes.

"god made the idiot for practise,then he made school
boards" Mark Twain

[oneoff]

And then there are tax shift consequences

One way they arise is exactly what has happenened in this 2009 reassessment. That is the same as saying that todays property values are probably set for another similar additional increase in the next reassessment 4 years hence. Lucky we are still 4 years behind in market value for taxation purposes. For instance; a residential properties fair market value approximately doubled over the 2005-2009 period; but agricultural went up only about 70%. Without use of tax tools (another pair of words you will have to learn to understand how property taxation currently works); then seperate problems will arise in that a lot of farmers could/willreceive an additional tax bill on their principal residence.

Be sure to put that factor in your one line summary on your explanations as to how the system works.

And those 70% and 100% average Sask increases mentioned above don't mean that your specific RM won't suffer school tax increases. I refer you to a recent Weyburn area press release that warns of suprises on those specific fronts.

Just because the province talks of "revenue neutral"; remember that refers to the overall picture from the provincial government point of view.

[furrowtickler]

They did the same thing here a while ago, K-7 then 8-12. IMO, there were many good reasons for Junior High 7-9.

[Choice2U]

My home quarter is comprised of three assessed areas that make up the total assessment:
1. Arable land
2. Waste land
3. Residential

When I didn't have much land, I was taxed on the residential component just like every other acreage owner. Once I purchased more land and the assessed value of all my land totalled an amount greater than my residential assessment, I was no longer taxed on my residence. I don't think there is any "conspiracy" happening here.