Calgary looks to waive late-tax penalties on compassionate grounds

Dorothy Motherwell paid her property taxes on time 57 years in a row. The 58th time, in 2016, she missed the deadline.

That was in all likelihood directly related to the fact that Motherwell had dementia. But the way Calgary's tax laws are written, the city had no choice but to assess a seven-per-cent late penalty to her bill.

That's a situation Coun.Evan Woolleyhopes to fix. He spoke to The Eyeopenerabout it Monday.

Q: What inspired this?

A:Dorothy Motherwell built her first house in Wildwoodin 1958. A particular point for Bill, her son, was that she was the daughter of a Scottish banker so she always took huge pride in paying her taxes.

When she missed the deadline on oneshe has since passed away it really consumed her.

This late payment kind of consumed her, and kind of jolted my heart andbecame a point of principle for Bill, andwe worked on this proposal together.

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Q: So this is compassionate tax relief?

A:It's not even taxrelief.Often times, what happens, is for whatever reason life happens, illness happens in families and they aren't able to pay taxes on time.

This isn't even not to pay taxes it's just to pay that seven-per centpenalty. That's a significant amount for many Calgarians. This is a very simple thing, that I was amazed we didn't have the opportunity to waive but I hope we will in a couple of weeks there.

Q: What arethe barriers?

A:Not just anybody can do it [it's restricted to people who have] critical illnessto a member of your immediate family or death within a time frame of that tax.

Basically your taxes are due in June, so if something happens in that couple of months leading up to June,with your family or a loved one, and you just missed that property tax deadline, we have the abilitywithin a year after that to waive that penalty fee.

It's the penalty [we'd forgive], andnot the tax.

With Dorothy Motherwell here, this was the perfect storm of things happened. She was suffering from Alzheimers. Her son couldn't get power of attorney, so he couldn't really figure out what was going on with her financial situation.

This is a really simple thing that has a huge impact on individuals and families.

Q: How much would it cost?

A:Either nothing or potentially up to they were estimating potentially$25,000a year in administrative fees. When we originally looked at this, we looked at it in a very bureaucratic way. But the form andthe process now is going to be unbelievably simple and one that won't cost us much of anything.

Q: What about postponing property tax payments for other reasons, like losing your job?

A:That was something they had considered to broadly explore but my notice of motion was specific andwas really [based] around the specifics of Dorothy Motherwell's case which was critical illness, or death in the family.

I had hunted around what some other cities had done even Canada Revenue [Agency] has a similar thing.

Other cities don't have a lot to support this process, but our federal andprovincialgovernments in their tax agencies do. And it's something that made sense here.

But you're right, there's a whole range of life issues that can come up that might be worthwhile exploring but for intents and purposes here, we didn't.

With files from The Eyeopener