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Glossary
Assessed Value (Assessment): The value of a property (lands and buildings) for taxation purposes.
Assessment Act: The law that governs the way property is assessed in Ontario.
Assessment Office: One of the local MPAC offices in Ontario, which administer property assessment.
Assessment Region: One of the 28 regions in the province whose boundaries coincide with those of the counties, regional municipalities or districts in their area.
Assessment Review Board (ARB): An independent tribunal established by statute to hear assessment appeals.
Assessment Roll: An annual list of the assessed values of all properties in a municipality, which includes the names of the property owners or tenants and their addresses.
Commencement Date: The commencement date is the day from which all due dates in an assigned schedule of events, are calculated and begin.
Current Value: The amount of money a property would realize if sold by a willing seller to a willing buyer in an at arm's length transaction.
Deeming: if an appeal is open within the current value assessment (CVA) cycle on March 31st then an appeal will be administratively created by the Board. This deemed appeal is free and no filing fees are required. For example, an appeal was filed for the 2017 tax year and remained unresolved by March 31st, 2018. The Board will create a free 2018 appeal. Deeming only applies to assessment appeals.
Disclosure: All parties must provide a copy, in paper or electronic form, of all relevant documents in their possession, control or power that they will be using to support their case to all other parties in the proceeding, except for privileged documents.
Exempt Property: Property which is assessed but not taxed. Generally, properties which are exempt from property taxes provide services for the public good, such as schools, churches, and hospitals. Other charities and philanthropic organizations not mentioned in the Assessment Act may be given exempt status if certain criteria are met.
Land: As defined in the Assessment Act, land includes buildings, trees, minerals and land covered with water. The terms "property," "real estate" or "real property" are more generally used.
Local Municipality: A city, town, village or township.
Lower-Tier Municipality: A municipality which is part of a county, region or district municipality. Examples are the City of Mississauga, a lower-tier municipality within the Regional Municipality of Peel and the Town of Gravenhurst, a lower-tier municipality within the District Municipality of Muskoka.
Omitted Assessment: An assessed property which has not been recorded on the assessment roll. When an omitted assessment is added to the assessment roll, property taxes can be collected for the current year and, if applicable, for any part or all of the previous two years.
Property: See 'real property' or 'land'.
Property Assessment Notice: A form sent to property owners and tenants by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation containing information about their property and its assessed value.
Property Assessor: An employee of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation who determines the assessed value of a property.
Property Class: One of seven standard classes of property used for assessment and taxation purposes: residential, multi-residential, commercial, industrial, pipe line, farm and managed forests.
Property Tax: The combined tax on a property made up of the municipal (local) tax and, if applicable, the region or county tax and the school tax.
Property Type: The categorization of a parcel of land in the official plan that determines zoning.
Real Property: Land and buildings, often called "property," "real estate" or "land."
Reassessment: The process of creating a new base for property taxation by updating assessments to reflect more current values.
Roll Number: The 19-digit number assigned by the Assessment Commissioner to an assessable property for identification purposes. This number appears on all notices issued by MPAC and the ARB. For example, 1904-031-200-01100-0000 represents:
- 19 – County or Municipal District
- 04 – City or Town
- 031 – Ward
- 200 – Area Subcenterision
- 01100 – Street Subcenterision
- 0000 – Plate number (formerly used in realty/business assessments)
Schedule of Events: A schedule of due dates and processes that parties must comply when working an appeal.
School Support: A term which refers to the tax support for school boards.
Single-Tier Municipality: A municipality that is not part of a county, region or district (e.g. the Town of Smiths Falls or the City of Windsor).
Supplementary Assessment: A change to the assessment of a property made during a taxation year due to a renovation or new construction, or a change in status of a property which ceases to be exempt from taxation.
Taxable Property: All property in a municipality which is not exempt from taxation.
Tax Rate: A rate set by municipalities for each property class based on the revenue required to provide local services, such as firefighting, garbage collection and snow removal. Property tax may be calculated by multiplying the tax rate for the property class by the assessed value of the property.
Taxation Year: The calendar year (January 1st to December 31st).
Upper-Tier Municipality: A county, region or district municipality, (e.g. Simcoe County, the Regional Municipality of Halton and the District Municipality of Muskoka).
Valuation Date: This is the date that the property's value is determined. The valuation date for the 2009 tax year is January 1, 2008.