FAQs

The Community Charter states that the planning period for the financial plan must include the current fiscal year and the next four fiscal years (five-year plan).

The Capital Budget is used to plan new big investments, municipal projects and rehabilitation of District assets. Examples include a new building roof, road repairs and replacement of vehicles and equipment.

The operating budget is the annual budget that funds the District’s day-to-day operation. Examples include parks, recreation, child care, bylaw services, and administrative expenses.

Property assessments are used by local governments to calculate the distribution of property taxes used to finance important community services.

BC Assessment's role:

• Deals solely with the assessment and classification of properties and has no authority or control over taxes or property tax rates.
• Provides you with your individual assessment, your annual assessment change in value as well as the average change for your property classification for the entire local jurisdiction (e.g. municipality).
• Provides all the property assessments within your local jurisdiction to your local municipality or taxing authority.

Your local taxing jurisdiction's role (District of Tofino)

• Each year, your local jurisdiction approves a budget to finance the expenditures related to the local operations and services of your community.
• The necessary tax rates and tax distribution are calculated to ensure adequate revenue for your local community.
• Tax notices are prepared and mailed to all property owners in the spring of each year.
• Your taxes are collected and your community is funded for the year.

An increase or decrease in your property assessment does not necessarily result in a corresponding increase or decrease in your property taxes.  

The most important factor is not how much your assessed value has changed, but how your assessed value has changed relative to the average change for your property class in your municipality or taxing jurisdiction.

You can find your municipality or taxing jurisdiction's average change listed on your annual assessment notice or via BC Assessment's online interactive map.

Property taxes are calculated using the the Property Tax Equation.

Assessed Value

Each January, BC Assessment mails property assessment notices to the owners of 2+ million properties in the province. The notice contains your assessed value, which is the estimated market value of your property as of July 1st of the previous year, the property classification, and tax exemption status. The assessed value, property classification, and tax exemption status are important factors in determining how much property tax you pay.

Property Taxes

To calculate your property taxes, multiply the taxable assessed value of your property by the property tax rate for your property class. 

If your residential property is valued at $3 million or more, additional school tax may be levied against it. For more information on additional school tax, visit the BC Government's school tax website. 

Example:  Say your property is assessed at $500,000 as of July 1st of the previous year. Since the property tax rate applies to each $1,000 of taxable assessed value, you must divide the assessed value of your property by $1,000. Next, multiply that number by the property tax rate for your property class to determine your property taxes.

Tofino’s property taxes are collected to address three main areas of expenditures:

1. The general municipal operations budget to deliver services to the community, such as roads, parking, parks, trails, recreation programs, planning and development services, fire protection, bylaw enforcement, emergency planning, and much more.
2. Debt servicing required for long-term loans taken out to build infrastructure such as water reservoirs or sewer infrastructure.
3. A Capital and Infrastructure Levy (“C&I Levy”), which effectively builds savings accounts to maintain and replace infrastructure from roads to pipes to buildings.