SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City councillor Adrian Bell wants to make it easier for residents to check the accuracy of their tax assessments after he learned a citizen was being taxed for something that doesn't exist.
"He'd been taxed for a finished basement for all these many years and he in fact did not have a finished basement," said Bell at the municipal services meeting earlier this month. "We have a few resources for (residents) where they can go find their information but it's not clear for them how to get access for their details."
Bell said oversights like this probably happen a lot.
"The assessor doesn't actually go into the houses and inspect them when these general assessments are done, at least that's my understanding from a conversation with the assessor," he said. "There's a lot that they can tell from the outside of a building. But the cost would be astronomical to go into each and every house, so he doesn't do it. Probably, there are other mistakes that are made and it's not clear to people how they can go about verifying what they're being taxed for."
Bell said other cities – Edmonton for example – have websites explaining what to do to check the accuracy of the assessments but also provides a user name and pin number residents can use to log in and review their own assessment details.
"This is information taxpayers want to have," he said. "It's not that we're hiding that information but it's not front and centre."
On Monday Mayor Mark Heyck said residents have 45 days to appeal their tax assessments, and this year it fell on March 9. People who've learned they've been improperly taxed but haven't filed their appeal during the 45 day period will find they're out of luck, said Clem Hand, the city's manager of corporate services. Appeals launched after the 45 day period will not be heard by the board of revision, said Hand. At the council meeting, Monday, councillors unanimously approved Bell's motion to have city staff find ways to make it easier for residents to view their assessments. The city's tax assessor Darcy Beck declined comment on the matter of inaccurate tax assessments.
Christine Sue, manager of finance for the city, did not respond to Yellowknifer requests for comment. Coun. Phil Moon Son said he thinks the problem of inaccurate assessments is widespread.
"I would say 80 per cent of the people don't question it, they just pay it. Because, either they are afraid of the process or they trust the process."
He said he thinks developing a system where residents all have access to the specifics of their assessments through a pin number and login name would be too expensive.
"Having a pin number for every single taxpayer in town would be quite challenging," he said. "And even if they have that it doesn't mean they're going to be provided with the information that they need."
He said the city's mail-out tax assessment notifications should give a more-detailed breakdown of the property being taxed in order to give residents a clearer picture of what they're paying for.
"There should be a lot more detail as to how they came up with that assessment," he said.
