New Year Means Property Assessments Will Soon be Issued
Prince George, B.C.- It won’t be long before the latest property assessments will be issued by BC Assessment, they are normally mailed out in the first week of January.
There has been a change at B.C. Assessment, one that might have been missed because of its timing.
David Highfield has been named as interim President and Chief Executive Officer. He takes over the role tomorrow.
The appointment was announced on December 23rd, as Highfield will be filling the vacancy created by former CEO Connie Fair’s move to become President and CEO of the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC.
Highfield moves into his new role having been with BC Assessment since 1975. He was most recently the Vice President of Assessment and oversaw the operations of all assessment regions in the province.
The BC Assessment Board of Directors will continue to search for a permanent replacement for Fair.
Comments
Let the gouging begin…again.
It’s a completely archaic and inane way to tax. ‘Money’ taxes ~ and ALL modern taxes are payable in ‘money’~ should be restricted to taxes on incomes or sales. NOT on some arbitrary assessment of what a piece of property is supposed to be worth.
I agree. There are really only two times when the value of anything is determined. The price on the day you bought it and the price on the day you sold it. (Or possibly refinanced it)
Every value in between is not relevant at all. You are not any wealthier.
Property tax had some justification in a primary agricultural society of old, where a farmer gave up a portion of his crop, in kind, to enable access to certain services those unable to grow their own food provided for him.
It would still have some justification if it were only a tax levied annually on a piece of property at a fixed rate, or perhaps even variable from property to property but based on any property’s ‘frontage’, in the payment of some service like a water or sewer line, sidewalks, paved streets, etc., etc.
But the way it’s presently done, based on somebody’s ‘assessment’ of what the property is supposedly worth, makes it one of the most unfair methods of collecting tax ever devised.
Not only that, but it’s contrary to the way it should be. Someone works hard to improve their property, and they’re hit with a higher tax bill. Someone else does absolutely nothing, just holds a piece of land for purely speculative purposes, and he pays way, way less. It’s completely counter-productive and a definite dis-incentive to improving the country.
And one more thing. How can a piece of property be said to be ‘more’ valuable from year to year when there’s a constant increase in the number of completely assinine restrictions on what you can do on ‘your’ own property? This tends to de-value ‘your’ land, and often makes, in the case of a piece of industrial or commercial property, for instance, it far too expensive to be in compliance, which you need to be just so you can have a chance to earn the additional money you now need to pay your higher tax bill! And then they say, “Small business is the backbone of the community”? How many more discs in it can be ruptured before it will be a complete invalid?
The mill rate. What a fine scam that is.
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