Municipal taxes
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James Munroe
Jun 19, 2012, 11:06:50 AM6/19/12
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I called the City of St. John's regarding property taxes. Currently, there are two types of business taxes in the city. The first is called the Business Realty Tax and functions very similarly to a home property tax. The tax is assessed as a fraction (called the mill rate) of the value of the property. It is the obligation of the owner of the building to pay this tax. Indirectly, when we pay a lease on rented space end up paying the cost, but it is included as part of our monthly lease payments.
All businesses also pay Business Occupancy Tax. The mill rate is dependent on the type of business you are in with a number of special cases for different industries. My understanding is that we fall under the "General" category. The current mill rate is 17.33 (1.733% of the assess property value). We pay a fraction of the assessed value of the property based on the amount of square footages we rent relative to the total leasable space of the building. Registered charities also pay Occupancy Tax -- but their mill rate is 0.00. According to the legal department of the City of St. John's, just being a non-profit like us (a corporation without share capital) is not special with respect to Occupancy taxes.
There is a minimum Occupancy tax of $267.50 / year but we will be above that. As an example, I suppose that 465 sq ft at 245 Duckworth (2011 assessed value is $550,00) would work out to about $45,000 * 0.01733 = 779.85 annual occupancy tax. In addition, there is a Business Improvement Tax for business operating in the downtown of 10% (up to maximum) of $4000.
To formally get on the tax roll, we fill out a a "Building/Development" application with the city. We do this after we have confirmed a leased location.
Sometime very soon, the city will be doing away with Occupancy Taxes. But, as far as I understand the cost just gets shifted to the Realty Tax and and rent would go up accordingly. Even if we signed a lease tomorrow, the municipal legislation is structured so that existing leases are included. Conclusion: when occupancy taxes are eliminated, our rent will go up an equal amount.
Beyond, that I am not aware of any other City of St. John's regulations or taxation issues that we need to address.
James
James Munroe
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Room C-4060 phone: 709-864-7362
email: jmu...@mun.ca
This electronic communication is governed by the terms and conditions at
http://www.mun.ca/cc/policies/electronic_communications_disclaimer_2012.php
All businesses also pay Business Occupancy Tax. The mill rate is dependent on the type of business you are in with a number of special cases for different industries. My understanding is that we fall under the "General" category. The current mill rate is 17.33 (1.733% of the assess property value). We pay a fraction of the assessed value of the property based on the amount of square footages we rent relative to the total leasable space of the building. Registered charities also pay Occupancy Tax -- but their mill rate is 0.00. According to the legal department of the City of St. John's, just being a non-profit like us (a corporation without share capital) is not special with respect to Occupancy taxes.
There is a minimum Occupancy tax of $267.50 / year but we will be above that. As an example, I suppose that 465 sq ft at 245 Duckworth (2011 assessed value is $550,00) would work out to about $45,000 * 0.01733 = 779.85 annual occupancy tax. In addition, there is a Business Improvement Tax for business operating in the downtown of 10% (up to maximum) of $4000.
To formally get on the tax roll, we fill out a a "Building/Development" application with the city. We do this after we have confirmed a leased location.
Sometime very soon, the city will be doing away with Occupancy Taxes. But, as far as I understand the cost just gets shifted to the Realty Tax and and rent would go up accordingly. Even if we signed a lease tomorrow, the municipal legislation is structured so that existing leases are included. Conclusion: when occupancy taxes are eliminated, our rent will go up an equal amount.
Beyond, that I am not aware of any other City of St. John's regulations or taxation issues that we need to address.
James
James Munroe
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Room C-4060 phone: 709-864-7362
email: jmu...@mun.ca
This electronic communication is governed by the terms and conditions at
http://www.mun.ca/cc/policies/electronic_communications_disclaimer_2012.php
David Bartlett
Jun 19, 2012, 12:17:58 PM6/19/12
to prot...@googlegroups.com
well it seems where ever we turn there is more and more costs all the time. maybe downtown isn't that great a spot if we have to pay an extra 10%?
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