City of Brandon Launches Online Municipal Tax Calculator

Brandon, MB – Brandon property owners can see an approximation of their proposed 2018 municipal taxes and how their tax dollar will be used to provide programs and services to the community via an interactive tax calculator tool now available on Brandon.ca.

The calculator, available at http://www.brandon.ca/budget/property-tax-estimator, provides an estimate of a property’s gross municipal taxes, based upon the Council-approved 2018 City of Brandon mill rate and 2018 provincial property assessment values. Education taxes levied by the Brandon School Division and provincial education levies are NOT included in this calculation.

Along with the ability to see year-over-year comparative municipal tax levels, citizens can also use the tax calculator to view how much of their municipal taxes are spent on each service area provided annually by the City of Brandon, and further delve into the cost of specific programs and services. For example, property owners can see how much of their municipal taxes are used to specifically fund services such as sanitation collection, policing, cemetery maintenance, or tourism initiatives.

“The City of Brandon strives to be open, transparent and accessible in its budgeting process and we invite all citizens to take advantage of this interactive tool,” notes Brandon City Manager/CAO Rod Sage. “It is our belief that by engaging our citizens in the fiscal activities of their local government, it will lead to a better understanding of how we fund and deliver the services that are important to them, and eventually lead to greater participation by our public in our budget development process.”

Sage adds that in future years, the City of Brandon plans to enhance the online tax calculator’s interactive features so that residents will be able to input their preferred budget enhancements or reductions and then see a visual representation of the resulting municipal tax implications.

Following City Council approval of the 2018 Municipal Tax Levy Bylaw, property tax bills will be mailed out in mid-May, with a payment deadline at the end of June 2018. A discount of 0.5% is applied to all 2018 property tax pre-payments received on or before May 31st, 2018. In addition to the traditional methods of one-time payment, annual taxes may also be paid monthly by automatic bank withdrawal using the City of Brandon’s Tax Installment Plan (TIP).  Discounts and penalties do not apply when enrolled in the TIP program.  The application deadline for enrollment in this year’s TIP program is June 15th, 2018.