Assessment & Taxation
Property Assessment
Property assessment is a key part of the municipal taxation process. Assessment is the process of valuing all properties within a jurisdiction using a specified appraisal technique.
Municipal Councils have a limited role in the property assessment process.
The Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) is an independent agency, bound by provincial legislation, that provides property assessment services to Saskatchewan municipalities. The City of Humboldt’s Assessor works with SAMA to determine reliable assessment values for local properties. Properties are re-assessed every four years.
Assessment values are used to calculate the amount of taxes that will be charged to the owner of a property.
Reassessment is not about increasing or decreasing the amount of tax revenue collected by the City of Humboldt. The assessed value of a property is just one of the factors used to determine overall taxes.
It is important to recognize that property assessment values may not necessarily reflect market value growth, except when reassessment updates occur every four years. When property assessments are calculated, a base date is selected and the assessment reflects the value of the property as it would have existed on that base date.
Visit SAMA’s website to learn more about the property assessment process or contact the City of Humboldt’s Assessor by phone at (306) 682-2525 ext. 303 or by email at assessor@humboldt.ca.
Property Taxation
The basis for determining property taxes is property assessments.
Once property assessments have been determined by SAMA, City Council sets a mill rate. A mill rate is the amount of tax paid per $1,000 of assessed property value – one mill is one-tenth of a cent ($0.001). Mill rate factors also may be used by City Council to redistribute the amount of total taxes paid by each property class.
A base tax is a tax tool where a specified dollar amount per unit is added to the municipal portion of each tax bill, regardless of its assessed value. Implementing a base tax increases the property tax paid on lower-assessed properties and decreases the property tax paid on higher-assessed properties. A base tax does not increase or decrease the total taxes collected by the municipality.
Saskatchewan municipalities must also collect education property taxes from property owners, based on tax rates that are set by the provincial government. Every Saskatchewan citizen is required to pay education tax. Municipalities remit these taxes to local boards of education. The City of Humboldt collects education taxes on behalf of the Horizon School Division and the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division. The municipality does not keep any portion of education taxes. Learn more about the education tax system in Saskatchewan here.
School Tax Declaration is a declaration of faith, not of school support. If you wish to declare or change your School Tax from one School Board to another based on your faith, please download the form on the right and submit it to City Hall.