Property Taxes

Learn more about how to pay your property tax and how your tax dollars are distributed

Property taxes are one of the ways the City of Burnaby collects revenue to pay for City services. The amount you pay is based on your property assessment, taxes set by Burnaby City Council and taxes we collect for services provided by other taxing authorities such as the Province of BC.

 On this page you'll find the information you need to:

  • Pay your property tax through My Property Portal and other payment methods
  • Understand your property tax notice
  • Understand how your taxes are calculated
  • Claim your home owner grant
  • Understand how the funds collected are distributed

Property tax estimator

Use the property tax estimator to determine how much your property's assessed value will affect your property taxes for the year.

Select either Residential (Class 1) or Business (Class 6) and enter your property's assessed value for a breakdown of your 2024 property tax estimates. You can find your property's assessed value on your property assessment notice or on the BC Assessment website.

Residential (Class 1)

Business (Class 6)

Home owner grant

The provincial home owner grant reduces the amount of property tax you pay for your principal residence. As it is considered a form of payment, if it’s not claimed by the due date, it becomes outstanding current taxes, subjected to penalties.

Apply to the Government of BC for the home owner grant. Please note: In 2021, the Province took over full administration of the grant program.

  • Home owner grant applications are now processed by the Province of BC.
  • Eligibility requirements remain the same.
  • If you're eligible, you must claim the home owner grant by the property tax due date to a avoid late payment penalty.
  • The grant threshold is the maximum assessed or partitioned value of a property where home owners are eligible to claim the home owner grant. You may be able to claim the full grant amount if your property has an assessed or partitioned value of $2,150,000 or less. If you meet all requirements but your property’s assessed or partitioned value is above $2,150,000, you may qualify for a reduced grant amount. For more information, see grant threshold at www.gov.bc.ca/homeownergrant.   

Visit www.gov.bc.ca/homeownergrant to apply for your home owner grant.

Understanding your property tax notice

The amount of property tax you pay is based on your annual property assessment. We send you your property tax notice in early June, for payment at the beginning of July.

Your property tax notice is made up of taxes set by Burnaby City Council, including general city taxes, Local Area Service Levy, sewer parcel and Business Improvement Area Bylaw.

Provincial legislation requires Burnaby to collect taxes for services provided by other taxing authorities, such as the Province of BC, TransLink, Metro Vancouver, BC Assessment Authority and Municipal Finance Authority.

Additional information

Property owners receive their assessment notices from BC Assessment (BCA) each January. The overall average residential value increase (used in setting the tax rate) is 2.62% for 2024. While the value of your property may have increased, that does not necessarily mean you will pay more in property taxes. The most important factor in determining how much you will pay in property taxes is how the assessed value has changed compared to similar properties in Burnaby. 

An increase in your assessed value exceeding the average will likely mean higher property taxes. An assessed value where the average increase is lower than the 2.62% average, will likely result in a lower tax rate increase than the stated 4.5% municipal rate increase.

Your assessed value is multiplied by the tax rate for your assessment class and divided by 1,000. The tax rate (or mill rate) is comprised of the rates levied by each taxing authority.

Taxing Authority 2024 Residential Mill Rate
City 1.4901
School – Province 0.9834
TransLink (GVTA) 0.2703
Metro Vancouver (GVRD) 0.0560
BC Assessment 0.0347
Municipal Finance Authority 0.0002
Total 2.8347
Example
Assessed Value X Mill Rate / 1000 = Gross taxes before Local Area Service, sewer parcel and Business Improvement Area charges
$1,176,300   2.83470   $3,334.46

 

Burnaby keeps 53 cents of each property tax dollar

The City passes on 47 cents of each dollar to the Province and other authorities. Only 53 cents of each dollar collected is used for City services.

How the City’s portion of taxes is spent

The City’s portion of property taxes collected funds public services–the majority going toward public safety and community services; parks, recreation and cultural services; and engineering services–including maintenance of roads and infrastructure.

The current year's Annual Financial Plan is available in March each year.

Table shows per $1,000 of assessed value:

Property Class City Council School - Prov Industrial Tax Credit - Prov School (net of Industrial Tax Credit) Translink Metro Vancouver BC Assessment Municipal Finance Authority Total
Residential  1.49010 0.98340 0.00000 0.98340 0.2703 0.05600 0.03470 0.0002 2.83470
Utilities  12.99720 12.11000 0.00000 12.11000 2.3812 0.19600 0.43590 0.0007 28.12100
Supportive Housing   1.49010 0.10000 0.00000 0.10000 0.00000 0.05600 0.00000 0.0002 1.64630
Major Industry 17.37620 1.36000 0.00000 1.36000 1.43230 0.19040 0.43590 0.0007 20.79550
Light Industry 3.46670 3.39000 0.00000 3.39000 0.6748 0.19040 0.09630 0.0007 7.81890
Business Other  4.84140 3.39000 0.00000 3.39000 0.8434 0.13720 0.09630 0.0005 9.30880
Managed Forest Land 0.00000 1.87000 0.00000 1.87000 0.00000 0.16800 0.22680 0.0006 2.26540
Recreation Non-Profit  0.49530 2.11000 0.00000 2.11000 0.1821 0.05600 0.03470 0.0002 2.87830
Farm 6.08350 7.15000 -3.57500 3.57500 0.3276 0.05600 0.03470 0.0002 10.07700

View Historical Tax Rates section in additional information.

Tables below show the changes to annual tax rates as percentages for each taxing authority. 

Residential (Class 1 ) annual tax rate increases
Year City School TransLink Metro Vancouver BC Assessment Municipal Finance Authority
2024 4.50% 8.95% 30.83% 14.94% 9.46% 0%
2023 3.99% 9.60% 9.29% 15.77% 8.74% 0%
2022 2.95% 2.09% 0.98% 8.29% -1.97% 0%
2021 2.95% 3.14% 7.71% 14.40% 1.23% 0%
2020 1.75% 1.83% 5.01% 13.13% 1.19% 0%
2019 2.50% 4.03% 10.19% 1.38% 1.57% 0%
2018 1.50% 3.22% 5.59% 12.47% 2.03% 0%
2017 2.95% 5.46% 3.01% 8.51% 5.88% 0%
2016 2.65% 7.30% 6.58% 10.24% 8.60% 0%
Business (Class 6) annual tax rate increases
Year City School TransLink Metro Vancouver BC Assessment Municipal Finance Authority
2024 4.50% 4.95% 20.85% 11.83% 2.88% 16.67%
2023 3.99% 6.06% 3.66% 15.16% 4.44% 25%
2022 2.95% 9.07% 7.21% 12.08% 9.05% 25%
2021 2.95% 231.81% -2.98% 3.84% -1.64% 0%
2020 1.75% -68.97% 5.26% 26.84% 5.27% 0%
2019 2.50% 6.78% 8.38% 16.99% 5.87% 25%
2018 1.50% 9.35% 9.23% 28.62% 11.60% 25%
2017 2.95% 4.50% 2.09% -3.99% 4.11% 25%
2016 2.65% 3.46% 0.81% 2.46% 4.10% 0%

Homeowners who qualify for the regular home owner grant of $570 must pay a minimum tax of $350 plus water and sewer use charges.

Home owners qualifying for the regular and additional home owner grants that total $845 must pay a minimum tax of $100 plus water and sewer use charges.

Change of address

It's important to keep your address current for property assessment and taxation purposes.

If the mailing address on your property tax bill is incorrect, please complete and submit the Change of Address Area 10, Jurisdiction 301 form directly to BC Assessment. Please note, this information will only update your property tax and your annual utility notice information.

Please note: It may take a couple of weeks for the City to receive your updated information from BC Assessment.

Related links

Contact us

Tax Office

Contact Us

Phone
604-294-7350
Fax
604-294-7153
Email
[email protected]

Address:

4949 Canada Way
BC Canada
V5G 1M2

Get Directions

Hours:

Monday - Wednesday: 8:00 am-4:45 pm
Thursday: 8:00 am-8:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am-4:45 pm

Holiday Hours:

Closed on statutory holidays

About the Tax Office

The Tax Office is responsible for the billing and collection of utilities, garbage disposal fees, and property taxes. We also collect taxes for other authorities including Provincial Schools, TransLink, Metro Vancouver, Municipal Finance Authority and BC Assessment. The office also provides central revenue receipting services for the City.

The Tax Office is part of the Revenue Services division in the Finance department.

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