These Organizations Don’t Have to Pay Property Taxes in Brampton

Published November 20, 2018 at 7:07 pm

Taxes…who likes paying them? Very few people, especially your property taxes.

Taxes…who likes paying them? Very few people, especially your property taxes.

Fundamentally speaing, taxes are needed to provide essential public services like health care, education and infrastructure like roads and bridges, but it seems no matter who is in charge people have this sense that taxes are always too high.

But considering that property taxes are the primarily source of revenue for a large city like Brampton, the idea that someone is going to come along to cut them is fantasy. The best they can offer is that they won’t allow property taxes to rise “beyond the rate of inflation.”

However, you may or may not be surprised to learn that certain types of property within a city or municipality that are exempt from paying property tax. This is outlined in Section 3 of the provincial Assessment Act.


Here’s a list of some of what is not required to pay property tax in Brampton, as outlined by provincial legislation.

  • Crown Land: in more modern times, this refers to land owned by the federal or provincial government.

  • Cemeteries, burial sites and crematoriums.

  • Churches: this refers to land owned by a church or religious organization or leased to another. One other criteria is that 50 per cent of the assessment of the principal residence and land used in connection with it of the member of the clergy who officiates at the place of worship referred so long as the residence is located at the site of the place of worship.

  • Community Colleges, Colleges, Schools and Universities

  • Child Care Centres

  • Long Term Care Homes

  • Public Hospitals: there is an exception here, in that the portion of the land occupied by a tenant of the hospital is NOT exempt from paying taxes.

  • Highways and toll highway: this means every highway, lane or other public communication and every public square, but not when occupied by a tenant or lessee other than a public commission.

  • Boy Scouts and Girl Guides’ property

  • Houses of refuge

  • Charitable institutions: land owned, used or occupied by the Canadian Red Cross, the St. John’s Ambulance Association, any charitable non profit organization for relief of the poor if the corporation is supported in part by public funds.

  • Battle sites: this is any land that a society or association by reason of its being the site of any battle fought in any war, and maintained, preserved and kept open to the public in order to promote the spirit of patriotism.

  • Airports: as outlined in previous stories, airports pay something called “payment in lieu of taxes”.

  • Amusement rides: such as roller-coasters, monorails, slides, ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds or other similar mechanical amusement devices on which a person rides.

  • Small theatres: Land used as a theatre that contains fewer than 1,000 seats and that, when it is used in the taxation year, is used predominantly to present live performances of drama, comedy, music or dance.  This does not apply to land used as a dinner theatre, nightclub, tavern, cocktail lounge, bar, striptease club or similar establishment.

What else do you think should be exempt from paying taxes in Brampton?

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