Ontario Announces MPAC Assessments Have Been Postponed for 2020

Ontario has announced that MPAC assessments have been postponed until 2021.

If you’re unfamiliar, MPAC, or the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, is the non-profit responsible for assessing the value of homes throughout Ontario. They then communicate their values to the local governments so that each municipality can determine the amount of property tax that is owed.

Every four years, MPAC reassess all of the province’s homes and sets the values that dictate property taxes. The last four-year cycle was scheduled to end this year, but the Ontario government has announced that the 2020 Assessment Update has been postponed. As such, 2021 property taxes for all homeowners in Ontario will be calculated based on their 2016 property assessment.

According to MPAC, if you have received a 2020 Notice of Assessment from MPAC, it could be for one of the following reasons:

• change to property ownership, legal description, or school support;
• change to the property’s value resulting from a Request for Reconsideration, an Assessment Review Board decision, or ongoing property reviews;
• property value increase/decrease reflecting a change to the property; for example, a new structure, addition, or removal of an old structure; or
• change in the classification or tax liability of the property.

Otherwise, your property taxes will be based on the value of your home on January 1, 2016 (as decided by MPAC at the time). While the Request for Reconsideration (RfR) deadline is usually March 31st of every year, given the state of emergency declared in Ontario, the 2020 RfR deadline has been pushed until 16 days after the emergency has been lifted. So, if you take issue with your current valuation, there’s still time to ask for a review.

One of the consequences of MPAC pushing back their assessments is that it will allow properties that have risen in value over the past five years to continue paying less property tax than they might if properly assessed in 2020. This is even more significant given that Toronto has raised its property taxes this year.

If you’re confused or want to better understand how property assessment and property taxes work, MPAC has put together a simple three-minute video that delivers a solid breakdown.