Property Tax notices are mailed out to property owners near the middle of May, with payment due by the first business day in July.
Property taxation is the single most important source of municipal revenue for the Town. The amount of money that is raised through property taxes is based on the Budget (Financial Plan) approved by Council each year. A share of the total revenues required to fund operations is collected from each taxable property within Sidney based on the assessed value of the property.
Please note that only about half of the funds collected through the property tax notice are Town revenues.
Information about other agencies included on the tax notice can be found on the Taxes for Other Agencies page.
BC Assessment is an independent body that provides market value information on the properties to be taxed within the Town of Sidney. Notices of assessed values are mailed to each property owner at the end of December. These values may be appealed to the Property Assessment Review Panel (through BC Assessment) no later than January 31st.
For further information regarding property assessments, please refer to the BC Assessment website.
The values provided annually by BC Assessment are used to determine the tax rates that will generate the revenue required for Town operations, as determine in the Financial Plan.
The British Columbia Property Tax Deferment Program allows owners who meet certain eligibility criteria to defer payment of annual property taxes.
You may qualify if you are:
- Age 55 or older
- A widow or widower
- A person with disability as defined by regulation
- Financially supporting children
Starting 2020, eligible property owners can apply for the Deferment Program online, quickly and easily. And for the first time, property owners can choose to auto-renew their application. Deferment application and renewal forms can no longer be submitted to the Town of Sidney.
For more information and to access the province’s online portal, please visit the Provincial deferment website
Property owners who occupy a property as their principal residence may be eligible for a Provincial Home Owner Grant. To find out more about the Home Owner Grant program, including your eligibility, go to the Provincial Home Owner Grant website
While applications for the grant used to be collected by the Town, the Province centralized the administration of the Home Owner Grant program in 2021.
Eligible residents must now apply for the grant directly through the Province.
Following several prior attempts at establishing a policy for the distribution of property taxes between various types of property, Town Council approved a 10-year plan to bring the tax rates paid by Residential and Commercial properties into closer alignment.
Over a period of 10 years, the rate paid by Commercial properties will be gradually reduced to a ratio closer to 2 to 1, when compared to the rate paid by Residential properties. This phase-in will begin with the 2023 property taxation year.
The following resources outline the key issues that were considered as part of Council’s review: