Property Tax Breakdown

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Your property tax bill consists of two major elements—municipal and education property taxes—and may also include local improvement charges and community revitalization levy allocation, if applicable.

Municipal Taxes

Municipal property taxes are set by the City and account for approximately 70% of your total property tax amount. The calculation of each homeowner’s share of municipal property taxes is based on 2 factors:

The City Budget
(the amount the City requires to continue offering municipal programs and services).
The total assessed value of all properties in our city.

The costs of services are distributed among all Edmonton properties, in the following manner:

budget ÷ total assessed value of all properties
= municipal tax rate

Then, to determine the exact amount each homeowner is required to pay, the City applies this tax rate to the value of your property in the following manner:

your property assessed value x municipal tax rate
= your municipal property taxes

Overall, changes in property values do not affect the amount the City requires to continue providing municipal programs and services. If your property’s assessed value changes more or less than the average change in Edmonton, your tax increase will be more or less than the average tax increase.

Additional Resources

City of Edmonton Historical Property Tax Rates

Education Property Tax

Provincial education property taxes are set by the Government of Alberta and account for approximately 30% of the total property tax amount. The City of Edmonton collects the education tax amount on behalf of the provincial government.

Each year, the Alberta government determines the total amount of revenue needed for education purposes through the property taxation system across the province and bills each municipality for its share of the education property tax requirement (called the "education property tax requisition").

The education property tax rate is calculated by the City in the following manner:

education property tax requisition
÷ total assessed value of all properties
= education property tax rate

Your property’s assessed value is used to calculate your share of Edmonton's education property tax requisition. This part of your property tax is collected by the City and sent to the Government of Alberta.

Who Pays

All property owners in Edmonton, residential and non-residential, are required to pay education property taxes including those without children in school and senior citizens.

Education Requisition Allowance

Education Requisition Allowance is a Levy imposed by the City that is used to offset the non-collection of education taxes from the previous year. The allowance applies only to education property taxes and is not additional revenue for the City.

Use of Education Tax

The Government of Alberta states that education property taxes support public and separate school students in kindergarten to grade 12. Education property taxes are pooled and then distributed to all Alberta school boards on an equal per-student basis. The majority of these funds are for instruction, including teacher salaries, textbooks, and other classroom resources.

Historical Municipal and Education Tax Rates

Municipal Property Taxes

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Five-year Average
Overall Change	1.3%	0.0%	1.9%	5.0%	8.9%	3.4%

Education Property Taxes

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Five-year Average
Residential	-7%	0.5%	-0.4%	1.9%	3.0%	-0.4%
Other residential	-0.6%	-4.1%	-1.5%	0.8%	0.8%	-0.9%
Non-residential	-10.9%	3.3%	-4.9%	-6.6%	5.3%	-2.8%

Local Improvement Charges

About 25% of all Edmonton property owners pay local improvement charges in addition to municipal and education property taxes.

Local improvement charges fund local improvement projects which are considered more beneficial to a property owner or local area than to the City as a whole. These may either be initiated by property owners or by the City, and include things like localized alley reconstruction, installation of alley lighting, sidewalk reconstruction, decorative street lighting upgrades, and curb crossing installation.

No properties are exempt from local improvement charges. City-owned properties are assessed in the same manner as privately owned properties.

Local improvement charges are included in the annual tax notice.

Paying Local Improvement Charges

Property owners have the following options for payment of local improvement charges:

You can pay local improvement charges in annual payments for the term of the project. The charge including interest will be included on your property tax notice sent in May each year. If you are currently enrolled in the City's monthly payment plan, this amount is included in your monthly payment.
During the first year, local improvement charges appear on your property tax notice and you can pay out your share of the project cost in full by December 15, without any interest charges.
After the first year, you can pay out the full balance of local improvement charges by December 15 to avoid further interest charges.

The City established an interest rate in a bylaw; therefore, it will not change for the term of the local improvement project.

When paying out the balance of your local improvement charges, payment must be made in full. The City is unable to accept partial payments for local improvement payouts.

Maintenance local improvement charges do not have an expiry year and are not eligible for the payout option.

How to file a formal complaint on local improvement charges

If you wish to file a formal complaint about a local improvement charge, you must do so in writing by December 31 of the first year the charge appears on the tax notice.

The Assessment Review Board will review your formal complaint if it pertains to

Incorrect assessment frontage
Incorrect owners assessed
Incorrect calculations

The local improvement rate is set by City Council and can not be appealed.

Assessment and Taxation in Community Revitalization Levy Areas

Business and residential property owners in a Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) area may ask if they pay higher property taxes. The answer is no, they do not. Owning property in a CRL area does not change the total amount collected in municipal taxes or provincial education property taxes. The tax bill for property located in a CRL area is the same as it would be if the property was located outside a CRL area.

The difference is in the allocation of a portion of the property tax revenue. With a CRL, a portion of the property tax revenue generated by properties within the area is allocated to fund the area’s municipal development projects and infrastructure improvements.

When property values within a CRL increase as a result of new economic growth and development in the area, the taxes arising from these increased values are allocated to paying the costs of improvements. In this way, the general property taxes in the rest of the city do not pay for new public amenities or infrastructure within the CRL area.

CRL Areas in Edmonton

The Community Revitalization Levy areas in Edmonton are:

The Quarters

CRL Sone: The Quarters

Belvedere

CRL Zone: Belvedere

Downtown

CRL Zone: Downtown

How the CRL Works

How the CRL Works

Your property assessment as of December 31 of the year your CRL is approved is the baseline assessment. Current and future municipal taxes on this baseline assessment are used to fund City services throughout Edmonton.
Future municipal taxes and provincial education taxes resulting from increased property assessment go directly to paying off the money borrowed to invest in your area.
In 20 years, or when the CRL loan is paid, all municipal taxes from your area will again be used to fund City services throughout Edmonton.

Assessment and Taxation Notices in CRL Areas

Assessment notices for properties within CRL areas include additional information. The assessment notice will identify a baseline assessment (property taxes on this amount go towards the general tax base) and an incremental assessment (property taxes on this amount go towards the CRL).

The baseline assessment is the taxable (for municipal tax and/or provincial education tax) assessed value of the property as of December 31 in the year the CRL is approved by the province. This baseline assessment amount will remain unchanged for the duration of the CRL (up to 20 years).

The incremental assessment is the increase in taxable assessed value above the baseline assessment amount. The incremental assessment will change over time, with the market value of the property. Any municipal infrastructure improvements within a CRL area are funded by the property taxes on the incremental assessment values of all properties within the CRL area.

Contact Us

Property Taxes

City of Edmonton
PO Box 1982
Edmonton, AB T5J 3X5

Telephone	In Edmonton: 311 Outside Edmonton: 780-442-5311
Online	Submit Inquiry
In-Person	Book an Appointment with a Tax Advisor

TTY	711

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