W.Y.N.L. v. City of Toronto, 2019 CanLII 96154

Assessment Review Board

Commission de révision de l’évaluation foncière

ISSUE DATE:

October 10, 2019

FILE NO.:

WR 162242

Assessed Person(s):

W.Y.N.L.

Applicant(s):

W.Y.N.L.

Respondent(s):

City of Toronto

Property Location(s):

Withheld

Municipality(ies):

City of Toronto

Roll Number(s):

Withheld

Appeal Number(s):

3342161

Taxation Year(s):

2018

Hearing Event No.:

722786

Legislative Authority:

Section 323 (1)(e) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 11. Sched. A

Heard:

September 19, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario

APPEARANCES:

Parties

Representative/Counsel⁺

W.Y.N.L.

Self-represented

City of Toronto

J. Boyczuk⁺ and M. Shankar

DECISION OF THE BOARD DELIVERED BY MARGARITA OKHOVATI

INTRODUCTION

1W.Y.N.L., (the “Applicant”) filed an application to the City of Toronto (the “City”) to have her 2018 property taxes reduced, cancelled or refunded because she was unable to pay due either to sickness or extreme poverty under section 323(1)(e) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, S.O., c.11 Sched A (the “Act”).

2The City has passed a by-law delegating its authority to determine such applications to the Assessment Review Board (the “Board”). The Board held a hearing to consider this application.

ISSUE

3The issue before the Board is whether or not the Applicant’s 2018 property taxes should be cancelled, reduced or refunded because of the Applicant’s inability to pay due to sickness or extreme poverty. This requires the Board first to determine, based on the evidence adduced in the hearing, if the Applicant was unable to pay her 2018 property taxes. If the Board determines she was unable to pay her property taxes, the Board must then determine whether the reason she was unable to pay was due to either sickness or extreme poverty.

DECISION

4The Board finds that the Applicant did not demonstrate that she was unable to pay the 2018 property taxes. The Application is dismissed.

REASONS FOR DECISION

Legislation

5Section 323.(1)(e) of the Act provides:

Upon application to the city treasurer made in accordance with this section, the City may cancel, reduce or refund all or part of taxes levied on land in the year in respect of which the application is made if,

(e) the applicant is unable to pay taxes because of sickness or extreme poverty;

Evidence and Analysis

Ability to Pay

Applicant’s Submissions

6The Applicant is a 63 year old divorced woman, who resides in a one bedroom condominium apartment by herself. She testified that her children were young when the family migrated to Canada however, her two grown up children are residing in Taiwan now. She testified further that she has an old father who lives alone. She also has a sister in Toronto who is married and lives with her own family. The Applicant further testified that she stopped working as a receptionist in 2010 at the age of 54 and was unable to secure a job because of her age. The Applicant stated that her mother passed away in April 2018, whose funeral cost her and her sister $20,000 each ($40,000 in total). The Applicant further added that she never received financial help from her family members.

7The Board has to determine if the Applicant would have been able to pay her property taxes by reviewing the financial resources available to the Applicant.

Applicant’s Financial Evidence

8The Applicant submitted a copy of the Form 1 – Financial Information and also provided evidence at the hearing regarding her monthly income and expenses, assets and liabilities as detailed hereunder:

Income Total $781.52/month

Expenses

a. Mortgage $ 0

b. Property taxes $207.86

c. Condominium fees $679.26

d. Home insurance $ 22.59

e. Telephone/cellphone $ 46.00

f. Cable/internet $ 56.49

g. Groceries/household

supplies $400.00

h. Meal outside $ 50.00

i. Transit/TTC $ 50.00

j. Clothing $ 20.00

Expenses Total $1,532.20/month

Net Total $- 750.68/month

Assets

Destination value of the subject

property in 2018 $ 413,000.00

RRSP $ 7,000.00

Cash $ 21,354.68

Assets Total $ 441,354.68

Liabilities $ 0

NET WORTH TOTAL $ 441,354.68

9Based on the information set out above, the net worth of the Applicant is $441,354.68.

Applicant’s Final Remarks

10“I have nothing to add to my oral testimony. I just wish my 2018 property taxes will be refunded.”

City’s Submissions

11Jennifer Boyczuk, on behalf of the City submits that the City opposes this application for the Applicant had the ability to pay her 2018 property taxes for the following reasons:

• The subject property is mortgage free with an equity of $413,000.

• In 2018, three similar properties in the same building of the subject property were sold for an average market value of $516,719.86 and median market value of $518,430.85.

• The Applicant was able to pay her 2018 property taxes with no interest.

• The Applicant is in possession of a total of $21,354.68. ($4,050.43 in checking account, $2,087.48 in savings account, $14,434.29 in tax free savings account (TFSA), 575.34 in $US savings account (CAN$782.48) and $7,000 in RRSP), after paying off all her credit card and other expenses and paying also $20,000 for her mother’s funeral.

Board’s Analysis

12The intent of the legislation is to provide relief for property owners who cannot pay their property taxes in full or in part due to sickness or extreme poverty in a given taxation year. If the Applicant proves an inability to pay the taxes, they must then prove the reason why they cannot, and only then can relief be granted. In this application, the Board must decide if the Applicant was unable to pay all or part of her property taxes. This requires a contextual analysis of the Applicant’s income and expenses and an examination of all financial resources available to her in 2018. This will be used to determine if she could have mitigated her property tax obligations.

13The Board notes that there is significant amount of deposits in the Applicant’s checking account (approximately $11,000) from her Tangerine savings account and $30,000 from an unknown source. The Applicant provided the Board with only one page of her Tangerine’s savings account showing the balance of $2,087.48 as of December 31, 2018. She did not provide the Board a copy of her Tangerine savings’ account statement for the whole year of 2018 in order for the Board to find out as to what were the sources of those transfers to her Tangerine account. She offered no explanation in this regard.

14The Board has reviewed all the evidence pertaining to the financial situation of the Applicant to determine whether she is experiencing extreme poverty and therefore unable to meet some or all of her tax obligations. As determined by the Board in M. M. U. v Toronto (City), 2015 CanLII 46826 (ON ARB):

… to qualify for relief under this section of the Act the condition cannot be one where an individual simply cannot make ends meet but amounts to a situation where the Applicant after having called upon every resource available to him and having applied every reasonable means to mitigate and manage his expenditures is left with no means of being able to pay some or all of their property taxes. In the Board’s view the envisages that an individual seeking relief on application under s. 323 of the Act should clearly demonstrate that for the year under appeal the Applicant, after scrupulously managing his/her resources and expenditures, was left with no resources available to meet his/her obligations to provide for the basic necessities of living and at the same time pay some or all of his/her property taxes.

15The Act envisages a situation thereby, after calling upon all financial resources available to the Applicant, the Applicant is still unable to pay all or part of the property taxes. Applications under this section of the Act are of last resort and Applicants must be in dire need to obtain relief.

16As stated above, the Applicant has zero mortgage, zero liability, assets of $441,354.68 and $21,354.68 cash in hand after paying her taxes, all of which establishes that the Applicant did have an ability to pay her 2018 property taxes

CONCLUSION

17Based on the reasons stated above, the Board finds that the Applicant had the financial ability to pay all her expenses including her 2018 property taxes,

notwithstanding her monthly deficit net income of (-$750.68).

18The Board therefore, dismisses the Applicant’s application for a refund of all or part of her 2018 property taxes.