How much is property tax in Toronto comes down to two numbers multiplied together: the city’s tax rate for the year, and MPAC’s assessed value of your home, which isn’t the same thing as what your home would sell for today. For 2026, that combined rate sits at 0.767311% of assessed value, split between a municipal portion the city keeps and a much smaller education portion the province sets and freezes across Ontario. On a typical Toronto home, that works out to thousands of dollars a year, billed in instalments rather than all at once, and it’s an entirely different tax from the land transfer tax you paid once at closing. This guide walks through how the number on your bill actually gets calculated, what a realistic bill looks like against a stated assessed value, when the instalments are due, and what happens if your assessment or your ability to pay changes. For everything else that comes with owning in the city, see our complete Toronto real estate guide.
How Toronto calculates your property tax bill
Your bill is the product of two separate numbers. The first is your property’s Current Value Assessment, a dollar figure MPAC (the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) assigns to every property in Ontario. The second is the tax rate the city applies to that value for the year. Multiply the two together and you have your annual bill, before any rebate or relief program applies.
For 2026, Toronto’s total residential rate is 0.767311% of assessed value, following a combined 2.2% increase in the city’s 2026 budget. That single number is actually two rates stacked together. Roughly 0.153% of it is the education portion, a rate the Ontario Ministry of Finance sets and applies uniformly across the entire province, and it didn’t move for 2026. The remaining roughly 0.614% is the municipal portion, the piece City Council actually controls and the part that funds police, fire, transit, roads, parks and every other city service. The city collects both portions on the same bill and forwards the education share to the province, but only the municipal share reflects a decision Toronto itself made about your tax rate.
What a typical Toronto property tax bill looks like
The rate is only half the picture, because your assessed value is very likely not what your home is actually worth today. MPAC’s assessments for the 2026 tax year are still based on January 1, 2016 valuations, a freeze the province has extended every year since 2020. A home bought or built after 2016 gets an assessment close to its actual value at the time, but most long-held Toronto properties carry a CVA well below current market price, sometimes by a wide margin after a decade of appreciation.
Applying the 0.767311% rate to a few illustrative assessed values shows how the math scales, without claiming these are what any specific home is actually assessed at. On a $500,000 assessed value, the bill comes to roughly $3,840 a year. On $1,000,000, it’s roughly $7,670. On $1,500,000, it’s roughly $11,510. Every one of those figures is this guide’s own multiplication of the sourced rate against a round number, not a government-published amount, and it’s the only honest way to show the calculation without pretending to know what any individual property’s CVA actually is. Your own number is on your assessment notice and on the tax bill itself, both of which state your CVA explicitly.
How property tax differs from land transfer tax
Buyers who searched for property tax sometimes actually mean land transfer tax, and the two get confused because they both involve a percentage and a government. They aren’t related. Land transfer tax is a one-time charge you pay once, at closing, when you take title to a property. Property tax is an ongoing annual bill you keep paying every year you own the home, recalculated each year against the current rate and your CVA. If you’re trying to understand the one-time tax you owe at closing instead, our guide to what land transfer tax is in Ontario covers how that’s calculated and why Toronto buyers pay it twice. And if you’re pricing out everything else due on closing day, including the property tax adjustment a buyer typically reimburses a seller for prepaid tax, our closing costs guide walks through the full checklist.
When your instalments are due, and what happens if you miss one
Toronto sends two property tax bills a year, an interim bill and a final bill, and each one is split into three instalments rather than due as a single payment. For the 2026 tax year, owners who pay by cheque, online banking or in person rather than through automatic withdrawal owe the interim instalments on March 2, April 1 and May 1, and the final instalments on July 2, August 4 and September 2. Owners enrolled in the city’s monthly Pre-Authorized Tax Payment program instead have a smaller amount withdrawn on roughly the 15th of every month, spreading the same total across twelve payments instead of six.
Missing an instalment costs more than a late fee. Toronto adds a penalty of 1.25% of the unpaid amount the day it becomes overdue, then charges further interest of 1.25% on the first day of every month it’s still unpaid after that, and the city states plainly that these charges can’t be waived or reduced once they apply. On a $7,670 instalment, the day-one penalty alone adds roughly $96, and every full month it stays unpaid after that adds another 1.25% in interest on top of the growing balance. If cash flow around a specific instalment date is a real risk, enrolling in the monthly PTP program before the next due date is the straightforward fix, since it removes the chance of forgetting a quarterly payment entirely.
Does MPAC reassess Toronto properties, and how often
Ontario normally reassesses every property in the province on a multi-year cycle, but that cycle has been on hold since 2020. The province has postponed the next province-wide reassessment every year since, most recently confirmed for 2026, which means your CVA for this tax year is still anchored to January 1, 2016 values regardless of what’s happened to the market since. When a full reassessment eventually does happen, most owners will see their CVA jump substantially to catch up with a decade of appreciation, though the province has also historically phased large increases in over several years rather than applying them all at once.
If you believe your specific assessment is wrong, whether too high relative to comparable properties or based on inaccurate information about your home, you can file a Request for Reconsideration with MPAC directly, free of charge, by March 31 of the tax year. MPAC generally responds within 180 days, and if you disagree with the outcome, you have 90 days from that decision to escalate to the Assessment Review Board. This guide isn’t the place to judge whether a specific assessment is too high or estimate your odds of a successful reconsideration; MPAC’s own process pages set out exactly what evidence a request needs and what happens next.
Relief available if you can’t pay your bill
Toronto runs dedicated programs for owners who genuinely can’t manage their tax bill, separate from any general hardship arrangement. The Property Tax Increase Cancellation and Deferral programs are open to owners 65 and older, some owners 60 to 64 receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement or the Allowance, and owners receiving eligible disability benefits, provided they’ve owned and occupied the home as their principal residence for at least a year. For the 2026 program year, the combined household income threshold is $62,000, up from $60,000 the year before, and the cancellation program specifically requires an assessed value under $975,000. The application deadline for the 2026 program year is November 2, 2026, and the city verifies household income directly through the CRA rather than requiring paper documentation, which makes applying considerably less onerous than it sounds.
These programs exist because a property’s value can climb faster than a fixed-income owner’s ability to pay tax on it, and they’re worth checking even if you assume you won’t qualify, since the thresholds move most years. Owners who don’t meet the income or age criteria but are facing a genuine short-term cash flow problem should still contact the city directly rather than simply missing an instalment, since the penalty and interest charges apply the moment a due date passes with no exceptions built in.
Frequently asked questions
How much is property tax in Toronto?
It depends entirely on your property’s Current Value Assessment, since Toronto’s 2026 residential rate of 0.767311% is applied against that figure rather than against your home’s current market price. On an assessed value of $500,000, that works out to roughly $3,840 a year; on $1,000,000, roughly $7,670; on $1,500,000, roughly $11,510. Those are this guide’s own illustrations of the math, not a claim about what any particular home is assessed at, because MPAC’s assessments still reflect 2016 values and can sit well below what a property would sell for today. Your actual CVA appears on your MPAC assessment notice and on your tax bill itself, and multiplying that figure by the current rate gives you your real number rather than an estimate based on market price.
How is the Toronto property tax rate calculated?
The rate is set once a year through the city’s budget process and applied uniformly to every residential property’s CVA. For 2026, the total residential rate of 0.767311% combines two separate pieces: a municipal portion of roughly 0.614%, which City Council sets to fund police, fire, transit, roads and other city services, and an education portion of 0.153%, which the Ontario Ministry of Finance sets and applies the same way across the whole province regardless of municipality. Toronto collects both on a single bill and forwards the education share to the province, so while your bill looks like one number, it’s really two levies from two different levels of government added together. Only the municipal share reflects a rate decision the city itself made for the year.
Is property tax the same as land transfer tax?
No, they’re two completely different taxes that happen to both apply to real estate. Land transfer tax is a one-time charge calculated on your purchase price and paid once, at closing, when you take title to a property; property tax is an annual, recurring bill you pay every year you own the home, based on your CVA rather than your purchase price. A buyer who paid land transfer tax at closing in 2024 is still paying property tax in 2026 and will keep paying it for as long as they own the property, while land transfer tax was a single event tied to that one transaction. Our guide to what land transfer tax is in Ontario covers how that one-time tax works if that’s the one you’re actually trying to understand.
What happens if I miss a property tax instalment in Toronto?
The city adds a penalty of 1.25% of the unpaid amount on the first day the instalment is overdue, then charges further interest of 1.25% a month on any balance that remains unpaid, compounding for as long as it sits outstanding. The city states these penalty and interest charges can’t be waived or reduced once they apply, regardless of the reason for the missed payment. On a mid-sized instalment left unpaid for a couple of months, that can add well over a hundred dollars in charges on top of the tax itself. If you’re worried about missing a due date, enrolling in the monthly Pre-Authorized Tax Payment program removes the risk entirely by spreading the same annual total across smaller automatic monthly withdrawals instead of six larger instalments.
Can I get help if I can’t afford my Toronto property tax bill?
If you’re 65 or older, 60 to 64 and receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement or the Allowance, or receiving eligible disability benefits, Toronto’s Property Tax Increase Cancellation and Deferral programs may apply. For the 2026 program year, the combined household income threshold is $62,000, and the cancellation program also requires an assessed value under $975,000. You need to have owned and occupied the property as your principal residence for at least a year, and the application deadline for 2026 is November 2. The city verifies your household income through the CRA directly rather than requiring you to submit financial documents yourself, which makes the process faster than it sounds. If you don’t meet those criteria but are facing a genuine short-term problem, contact the city before a due date passes rather than after, since the penalty and interest rules apply automatically with no built-in exceptions.
Your property tax bill is only ever your CVA multiplied by the current rate, which means you can work out roughly what you’d owe on any Toronto property before you make an offer on it. If you’re pricing out what a specific home would actually cost to own, browse current Toronto listings to see real assessed and asking prices side by side, or read the rest of our guides for what else comes with owning in the city.