Jeff NagelBlack Press
The B.C. government has raised the threshold to qualify for the full home owner grant to shield some owners from a higher property tax bill.
The jump in assessed values this year would have left owner-occupied homes that have climbed above $1.1 million – the old threshold – with less than the basic $570 home owner grant offsetting taxes.
The revised threshold is $1.2 million and homes above that lose $5 of the grant for every $1,000 in additional value.
That means the grant now disappears altogether for homes worth more than $1.314 million.
The province reduced the threshold in 2014 from a previous $1.295 million in order to skim $11 million from home owner grants to general revenue and it was kept frozen at $1.1 million last year.