It’s property tax time
If you’ve been on top of your mail (as well as your finances), you’ll know that the deadline to pay your property taxes is just around the corner - July 5th to be exact. Some home owners were surprised to find much higher tax bills than they had expected. In some cases, property taxes increased by well over a thousand dollars. How can this be, you might ask?
Well, remember a couple months ago when you received your property assessment? You were probably happy to see the value of your property rise so drastically. In fact, we had a handful of clients who called to see why their home values increased so much (over $100,000 in couple of cases!). But it makes sense. With the Greater Vancouver real estate market burning up the charts, the values of many homes have gone up considerably. As a result, property taxes, unfortunately, must follow suit.
Where rising property taxes may become a problem is in the case of rental properties. If you forget to include the cost of property taxes into your rental calculations, you may be left paying for them on your own. You may not be able to collect enough rent to fully cover your mortgage and your property taxes for a rental property, but as long as you know what you’ll have to pay, you’ll be able to plan for this expense in advance and avoid any financial crises. And remember, property taxes on rental properties are tax deductible against your rental income!