Toronto Property Tax: What You'll Pay and How to Read Your Bill

Toronto's 2026 residential property tax rate is 0.767311% of your assessed value. On the average Toronto home, which MPAC assesses at $692,140, that is $692,140 × 0.767311% = $5,311 a year. Two things trip people up: the rate is three levies added together, and the value they multiply is not today's market price but what MPAC judged the property would have sold for on January 1, 2016.

The 2026 rate is three levies added together

Each is published separately on the City's Property Tax Rates & Fees page.

The addition is exactly what it looks like: 0.605295% + 0.153000% + 0.009016% = 0.767311%. The City Building Fund is a dedicated levy whose increase Council adopted on December 17, 2019, adding increments yearly from 2020 through 2026.

These 2026 rates are final: Council considered the budget on February 10, 2026 and it is deemed adopted. The announcement that day put the increase at 0.7 per cent on the residential operating levy plus a dedicated 1.5 per cent City Building Fund increase: 2.2 per cent combined, or $91.53 a year ($7.63 a month) on that average assessment. Rates re-set annually, so no 2027 rate exists until Council adopts that budget.

What that costs on a real assessed value

Multiply your phased-in assessed value by 0.767311%. Each figure below is that multiplication, rounded to the dollar.

Split the average across the three levies, carrying the cents:

The rates page and the 2026 Final Property Tax Bill brochure both flag their figures as rounded, and this is where that shows: $4,189.49 + $62.40 + $1,058.97 = $5,310.86, a penny under the $5,310.87 that $692,140 × 0.767311% gives directly.

How Toronto's rate compares with the 905

Toronto is single-tier, so no regional levy appears on the bill. In the 905 an upper-tier region takes its own share, which lifts Brampton's total well above Toronto's.

Brampton and Markham publish their own 2026 rates. Markham's total lands below Toronto's, on a municipal rate under a third of Toronto's.

But a lower rate is not a lower bill. Markham's 2026 average assessment is $822,671 against Toronto's $692,140, and its table puts the average Markham bill at $5,947.00, above Toronto's $5,311, on the lower rate. Never compare rates across municipalities without the assessments underneath.

How to read each line of the bill

You get two bills a year, each with three instalments.

The interim bill is mailed in January and is not based on this year's rate at all. It is roughly 50 per cent of last year's taxes, adjusted for prior-year additions or cancellations, so you can start paying while Council debates the budget. The City says plainly that it "does not reflect the proposed 2026 property tax increase."

The final bill is mailed in May. It carries the current year's phased-in assessed value from MPAC and the current year's City, City Building Fund and education rates, less what you paid on the interim bill. A schedule at the bottom shows the assessment-related share of any change.

The other lines worth knowing:

Your assessed value is a 2016 number, not market value

This is the biggest misunderstanding on the subject. Your tax is calculated on your property's current value assessment as of January 1, 2016: what MPAC judged it could reasonably have sold for on that date. It is not a 2026 appraisal, it is not your listing price, and a 2026 sale does not change it.

MPAC's last province-wide Assessment Update ran in 2016. The province postponed the 2020 update over COVID-19, then filed a regulation on August 16, 2023 extending that postponement through the end of the 2021–2024 cycle. MPAC holds that 2026 assessments still rest on fully phased-in January 1, 2016 values, and the City agrees: the value on your 2016 notice has set your taxes for 2017 through 2026. When a reassessment does land, what will move your bill is how your value moves relative to the average for your class, not the raw increase.

The province has not restarted it. The 2024 Ontario Budget said that "to maintain stability for taxpayers, the provincewide property reassessment will continue to be deferred until this review is complete," and the 2025 Budget still calls that review ongoing.

When the bills are due, and your instalment options

If you pay bill by bill, the 2026 due dates are March 2, April 1 and May 1 for the interim bill and July 2, August 4 and September 1 for the final bill.

The Pre-Authorized Tax Payment (PTP) program withdraws automatically; enrol any time on one of three plans.

Otherwise pay by banking with your 21-digit roll number, by post-dated cheque to the Treasurer, City of Toronto, or at a payment counter. The Property Tax Lookup opens up your account details and online services once you sign in with your customer number, and the Property Tax Calculator estimates the year's tax from a price or an assessed value. A current-year tax receipt is free on request; prior years cost $23.71 each.

What happens if you pay late

Late charges are set by by-law under the City of Toronto Act, 2006, and the City's late payments page is explicit that they cannot be waived or altered.

• 1.25 per cent on the first day of default, and 1.25 per cent again on the first day of every month the balance stays unpaid. Payments go to the oldest balance first.
• A statement of accounts on overdue balances over $100, with a fee added.
• A Final Notice in April for a residential account carrying a prior-year balance, then 21 days to pay. Miss that and an account $100 or more in arrears goes to a bailiff in early May, after which you pay the bailiff directly: the City cannot take the money.
• After two years in arrears, the City can register a Tax Arrears Certificate on title and start a sale of land by public tender. You get one year from registration to pay the cancellation price.

What the City can add to your bill

These fees took effect January 1, 2026 and are reviewed annually.

If you think your assessment is wrong

The City does not set your assessment and cannot change it. You go to MPAC: for a home, you must go there first.

Step one: a Request for Reconsideration (RfR). MPAC reviews it free, and for residential, farm or managed forest property you must file one before you may appeal. The deadline is printed on your Property Assessment Notice: MPAC's 2026 sample notice reads March 31, 2026. That window has closed, so work to the date on your next Notice. File through AboutMyProperty or by mail with photos, comparable sales, appraisals or repair estimates. MPAC's own test is the useful one: could you have sold on January 1, 2016 for the value on your notice? A result usually comes within 180 days and may take up to 60 more; MPAC currently posts a notice that some RfRs are delayed.

Step two: the Assessment Review Board. If you disagree with the result you have 90 days from the date MPAC issues it to appeal to the ARB, an independent tribunal. Non-residential owners may skip the RfR and file by March 31. The RfR is free; the ARB is not: a residential, farm or managed forest appeal costs $132.50 per roll number, less a $10 e-filing discount. Either way your taxes must be paid in full as billed while it runs.

A separate City route covers changes to the property itself: demolition, fire damage, a change of tax class, or repairs preventing normal use for at least three months. Apply for a cancellation, reduction or refund; the 2025 deadline was March 2, 2026, and late applications are not accepted. You do not need a tax consultant for any of it.

The Vacant Home Tax: what counts as vacant, and the eight exemptions

Every residential owner in Toronto must declare occupancy status annually, even if you live in the home, by April 30. Most owe nothing.

The City counts a home as vacant if it sat empty six months or more in the taxation year. It is not vacant if it was your principal residence for at least six months, or occupied that long by a tenant on a written agreement of 30 days or more, or by family or friends as their principal residence. Travel, snowbird winters, work elsewhere and outpatient care do not make a principal residence vacant.

Eight exemptions cover a home that genuinely sat empty. Each must still be declared, with documents:

Failing to declare is itself an offence. No declaration means the property is deemed vacant and billed 3 per cent of its current value assessment, the rate since the 2024 taxation year, five figures on its own at the Toronto average. On top of the tax, Chapter 778 § 778-11.1 makes failing to declare an offence carrying, on conviction, a fine of a minimum of $250 and a maximum of $10,000 per offence, plus a special fine under § 778-11.2. A false declaration, or withholding information the City asks for, carries the same up-to-$10,000 exposure. (That posted chapter is consolidated only to February 15, 2023 and still shows the original one per cent rate, so take the rate from toronto.ca. No flat late-declaration fee appears on the 2026 fee schedule.)

Notices for 2025 went out in June 2026; payment is due September 15, October 15 and November 16, 2026, and pre-authorized tax payments do not cover it. Dispute a bill with a Notice of Complaint: for 2025, by December 31, 2026. The City's 2026 bill brochure puts the opening of the 2026 declaration period at the beginning of November 2026.

Relief programs, and the deadline that closes them

The City runs relief for low-income seniors and low-income people with disabilities. Both tax programs need combined household income of no more than $62,000, no prior-year taxes owing, a utility account paid in full, and that you owned and occupied the home as your principal residence for a year or more before October 31, 2026. Age requirements must be met by December 31 of the taxation year.

The deadline page gives November 2, 2026 for the 2026 tax year. The City's February news release says "Friday, October 31". But October 31, 2026 is a Saturday, so that cannot be right as written. Apply by Friday, October 30 and the contradiction cannot cost you anything. Reapply every year, with fresh documents.