TABIA - Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas

I usually try to start my reports with a bit of humour, not that it's ever easy to find anything funny about taxation. But this year it seems impossible. I snaffled a few items from the internet which were originally written in jest, but the irony is that today in 2013, what was formerly considered a joke has become a reality.

JOKE: A Canadian can consider himself a success when it costs him more to support the government than to support a family.

Excerpted from a letter to the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) and the Minister of Finance

    I purchased this property in April of 2007 for $535k. A few months later I was informed by MPAC that it's new value was $748k - an increase of 47% in 7 months at the height of the recession and at a time when the road I was on was under construction (this lasted three years and the frequent shutdowns of part or all of the street and sometimes even the sidewalks forced me to lay off all of my staff - 15 businesses on the street closed during this period). You can imagine my amusement when customers asked if businesses were being compensated for the loss of traffic during the construction - I told them only if you consider a 50% tax increase "compensation".

By CHARMAINE NORONHA
The Associated Press:The Kansas City Star

Toronto's Harbourfront Centre hosts thousands of events each year, many of them free. And the York Quay Center and the Power Plant have changing arts and photo exhibits year-round for no entry fee.

If you’re visiting Toronto, you can’t help but notice construction cranes, new condos and other signs of gentrification, like restaurants and bars popping up in new hipster ’hoods. But despite the upscale crawl, many of the city’s best attractions are tried and true mainstays that can be experienced for free.

Was It All Just a Cruel Hoax?

The business education tax (BET), a heavy property tax which all of us are paying either directly or indirectly, was imposed at different rates in different municipalities.Prior to 2007, it was a far heavier tax in Toronto than in the surrounding municipalities.It was making it more difficult for Toronto businesses to compete against businesses in Mississauga, Pickering, Markham etc, where the rates were much lower.

PRESS RELEASE - March 2012

In its 2007 Budget, the McGuinty Government promised to level the Business Education Tax across Ontario. It undertook to implement a gradual reduction to achieve a provincially uniform tax rate of 1.6% of assessed value by 2014. The 2012 Budget freezes that program, leaving Toronto business paying a rate well in excess of that imposed on surrounding municipalities.