City tax hike issue not quite so simple

Re: Council Needs to Start Living in Real World, Opinion, June 2

I agree with many of Licia Corbella’s points except her conclusion about an 18.3 per cent residential tax increase. Since the calendar year and the city tax year are six months out of sync, some people reach incorrect arithmetic conclusions when their new TIPP tax bill arrives.

The new monthly payments include a component of “back taxes” (my term) due to this synchronization issue.

In the meantime, if people track their taxes and assessments year over year (e.g. on a spreadsheet) and calculate the actual annual increases, I suspect these numbers will track closely to city claims.

Having spent time in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver where municipal tax bills can be considerably higher for a similar property to mine in Calgary, I find my tax bill to be quite reasonable.

Don Smillie, Calgary