Property Tax Regressivity and Property Tax Relief Programs Across Provinces in Canada*   – by David Murrell** and Yan Chu* * Paper to be given at the Canadian Economics Association meetings, on May 30, 2010, Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec. ** Professor, Department of Economics, University of New Brunswick at Fredericton dmurrell@unb.ca ** graduate student, Department of Economics, University of New Brunswick at Fredericton

Calculating Aggregate Regresivity Indexes   (1) where: IN = the regressivity index M = median of property taxes paid 1 = the first quartile of household income 4 = the fourth quartile of household income Y = income of reference household before tax

SHS 2006-table 1. (Property tax- all owner occupied households) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) PROVINCP HINC.H.ave G010.H.ave Percentage MD1 MD4 RTB.1 60460 894.8 1.48 2.47 1.12 2.21 62465.2 1453.3 2.33 3.81 1.64 2.32 64285.8 1372.3 2.13 3.70 1.50 60200.5 1139.5 1.89 3 1.29 75677.7 2352.6 3.11 6.17 2.02 3.05 93738.3 2978.1 3.18 7.07 2.15 3.28 71878.9 2079.1 2.89 5.16 2.17 2.37 71512.1 1910.2 2.67 5.33 2 95933.7 1883.5 1.96 4.25 1.28 3.32 81080.2 2129.5 2.63 5 1.74 2.87 75176.9 1895.0 2.52 4.34 1.82 2.39

Table 3.Ranking MRTB.1 , by age group, by province, 2006 (1) (2) (3) (4) All Homeowners Homeowners Under Age 65 Homeowners Age 65-Plus MRTB.1 2.96 2.72 5.24 1.93 2.89 2.73 4.77 1.75 2.6 2.43 4.14 1.70 2.51 2.35 3.77 1.61 2.42 2.26 3.81 1.68 2.15 2.05 3 1.47 1.89 1.81 3.62 2.00 1.88 1.7 2.80 1.65 1.64 1.51 2.75 1.82 1.27 1.17 1.94 1.67 2.25 2.08 3.59 1.72

Table 4. Labelling owner-occupied property-taxpayers: by age and income status Age Situation Poor Non-poor Senior A B Non-senior C D

Property Tax Relief Prgms Maximum Household Income Table 5. Description of Property Tax and Property Tax Relief By Province: 2005 year Province Program Title Property Tax Relief Prgms Maximum Household Income  Newfoundland and Labrador N/A  Prince Edward Island O-O Residential Tax Credit Senior Citizen R-P-T Deferral Program A, B, C& D A&B $30,000/year or less  Nova Scotia Property Tax Rebate Program the CAP Assessment program A A, B, C & D (1)  New Brunswick Property Tax Allowance Program A & C $20,000/ year or less  Quebec Property Tax Refund $18,467/year  Ontario Property Tax Credit (2)  Manitoba Education Property Tax Credit $15,000 for individual; $27,500 for seniors  Saskatchewan  Alberta Education Property Tax Assistance for Seniors  British Columbia Basic and additional Home owner Grant Source: Various provincial government websites ; N/A = No relief program exists

Table 6. Average Mortgage payments for homeowners age 65-plus, homeowners under age 65 and all homeowners in 2006 in Canada (1) (2) (3) (4)   Homeowners Age 65-plus Homeowners under Age 65 All Homeowners Ratios PROVINCE Ave.Mort.H  (1)/(2) 540.51 4202.74 3394.58 0.13 815.91 5352.61 4414.36 0.15 627.22 5317.73 4145.10 0.12 812.56 4413.44 3568.74 0.18 1137.42 5670.04 4793.04 0.20 1425.31 9626.85 7836.25 734.15 5588.75 4418.84 553.46 4794.47 3735.28 1001.14 8519.53 7235.31 1075.30 10336.28 7908.31 0.10 888.99 6597.65 5307.88

Table 7. Average Mortgage payments plus Average Property Tax Paid over household income for homeowners age 65-plus, homeowners under age 65 and all homeowners in 2006 in Canada (1) (2) (3) (4)   Homeowners Age 65-plus Homeowners under Age 65 All Homeowners  Ratios PROVINCP Ave.(Mort.PT)/Inc.H (1)/(2) 3.89 7.60 7.12 0.51 5.03 10.09 9.39 0.50 4.65 9.35 8.58 5.33 8.22 7.82 0.65 7.27 9.73 9.44 0.75 7.86 12.07 11.54 6.07 9.57 9.08 0.63 5.29 8.35 7.87 5.43 9.90 9.51 0.55 5.98 13.58 12.39 0.44 5.92 10.15 9.59 0.58