Taxation

COVID -19 RESPONSE

Council is providing relief for property owners in response to COVID-19. Both the federal and provincial governments have been announcing financial support programs.

  • Property tax deadlines have been extended to September 30 (eliminating the July 1 penalty). Council approved tax rates June 8; tax bills were mailed June 22  
  • Residents can temporarily opt out of TIPP.  To do this, you must cancel your current TIPP enrollment by submitting a TIPP Cancellation Form. 

Administration encourages property owners not undergoing financial stress to continue to pay their taxes on June 30 or continue their regular payments through TIPP. This will avoid larger TIPP payments later in the year and support essential Town services.

Property Assessment and Taxes

Property assessment notices are sent to property owners at the end of January each year.

The property taxes each resident pays is calculated in proportion to the value of the real estate property they own. Determining the value of a property for taxation purposes is known as assessment. Assessed values are a means of fairly distributing the town tax burden and ensuring that each property owner pays a fair and equitable level of tax. Find out how your property assessment is determined.

As assessment values vary between individual properties and between communities, your municipal tax changes may be higher or lower than the average. 

See a sample tax bill

The municipal tax portion of the property tax bill in 2020. will increase by 0.14% on the average single-family home, assessed at $470,100. Actual property tax amounts will vary depending on assessed value. This will result in an increase of $5.00 in municipal property taxes per month on the average single-family home. (see table below).

On the annual property tax bills, the Town also collects provincial education taxes and the Rocky View Foundation requisition to support the Big Hill Seniors Lodge. As a result of the recent election, the Province has not yet provided the requisition amount for education taxes. This amount will be provided to Alberta municipalities in the fall. Any required corrections will be reflected in the 2021 education taxes amount.

Property Tax Allocations Chart V2

  2020 2019      $ in/decrease % increase
Average single family dwelling assessment:
$470,100		        
Municipal tax levy $2,274 $2,251 $ 23  1.02%
Education + Rocky View Foundation requisitions $1,214 $1,232 $-18
 -1.46%
Total property tax bill $3,487 $3,482    $5  0.14%

Supplementary Assessment 

If you recently bought a new home, you may receive a supplementary assessment/tax bill in November.

Supplementary tax bills will be mailed October 22, 2020. Final complaint date is December 29, 2020 and due date is December 31, 2020. You can check details of your account anytime at cochrane.ca/eServices.

General information

The tax year runs from January to December:

  • Property tax bills will be mailed later in June.
    Please note: If you own a condominium, you may receive a separate tax bill for your parking stall(s) or storage unit(s).
  • If you do not receive your tax bill by July  15, 2020, please contact us to request it.
  • If you would like to make monthly payments instead of one annual payment, please apply to our TIPP Program

The Town of Cochrane collects funds on your annual tax bill for the Rocky View Foundation (to support Big Hill Seniors Lodge in Cochrane) and the Alberta Education Fund.