City of Saskatoon working to claim $4.2M in unpaid taxes

The City of Saskatoon’s finance department is getting ready to bear down on over 600 property owners who are still owing a collective $4.2 million in taxes from 2017 and beyond.

A finance committee report filed ahead of Tuesday’s meeting shows 633 properties have failed to pay their taxes for over a year, and have had tax liens placed against them by the city.

The report notes city staff has “made considerable effort to contact the assessed owners of the various properties to obtain payment or to negotiate reasonable payment schedules.”

The list includes several commercial condo buildings, a shopping centre, and over 150 residential condos.

But the majority of the missing tax revenue comes from 418 detached, single-family homes owing a total of $2,530,116.83.

“It’s always a bit troubling to see,” said Ward 7 Councillor Mairin Loewen, who sits on the finance committee.

“But it’s very complicated. It’s not just a question of being able to snap one’s fingers and receiving those dollars from those properties.”

This year’s back tax total of $4.2 million is a $1 million increase over the number reported by the finance department in February 2018.

The next step of the tax collection process, subject to council approval, is to provide property owners with another six months to pay or to set up a payment schedule. That six-month notice would come along with a warning that failure to pay would give the city authority to claim possession of the property.

The report notes that between 2013 and 2018, a total of 5,954 tax enforcement liens were placed on properties. Of those, nearly 85 per cent have been paid in full. The city has only taken the title of four properties.