The City of Ottawa has found more than $564,000 in back taxes are no longer able to be recovered and staff are recommending councillors approve writing it off. A report prepared for the Oct. 1 Finance and Corporate Services Committee meeting says around 99 per cent of billed property taxes in Ottawa are collected and paid in the same year, with the outstanding 1 per cent being paid in following years through various collection methods, such as legislated notices, phone calls, and tax sales.
Some taxes, however, are never recovered for a variety of reasons. The report says that there is an outstanding balance of $564,254 that cannot be collected and should be written off the tax roll. "Staff have determined that taxes billed on 190 properties are uncollectible or no longer payable and should be written-off," the report says.
Of that amount, $430,493 would have gone into city coffers, while the remaining $133,761 was intended for the school boards. This total represents a fraction of a per cent of the city's overall tax income. The report says the City of Ottawa invoiced approximately $2.
58 billion in municipal and education taxes in 2024. The reasons for the recommended write-offs include an unsuccessful tax sale on a property that owed $12,005, disputes over taxes on properties owned by other levels of government or Crown corporations totalling $62,623, and $489,626 worth of unpaid taxes dating back to the 1980s that can no longer be collected or subjected to a tax sale. "Som.