Education Property Tax

Education taxes are not subject to control or review by the City of Lethbridge. Under Provincial legislation the City is required to administer and collect the education tax on behalf of the Province for public and separate school boards.

Each year, the Alberta Government determines the total amount of revenue that will be required for education purposes through the property taxation system across the province.

The total assessment of all property in a municipality is used as the basis to calculate that municipality’s share of the total provincial amount. Every municipality’s share of the total provincial amount is called the education property tax requisition. Annually, the Province sends out these requisitions to all municipalities in the province.  The municipality is then required by Provincial legislation to collect the revenue required to pay the requisition through the property assessment and tax system.

Your property assessment is used to calculate your share of the revenue required to pay the requisition for Lethbridge. This part of your total property tax bill is collected by the City and sent to the Alberta Government. This is not additional revenue for the City.

Who pays

All property owners in Lethbridge, residential and non-residential, are required to pay education property taxes including those without children in school and senior citizens.

Individuals who own property located in an area where a separate school district exists can file a School Support Declaration to declare their Roman Catholic faith. If the notice is not returned, the property will be assessed as public and the education property taxes will be directed to the Alberta School Foundation Fund and redistributed on an equal per-student amount to the public and separate school boards. Property owners can update their School Support Notice at any time. Changes effect the next calendar year.

Use of the education tax

The following information is provided by the Government of Alberta: "Education property taxes support public and separate school students in grades 1 to 12. Education property taxes are pooled and then distributed to all Alberta school boards on an equal per-student basis. The majority of these funds are for instruction, including teacher salaries, textbooks, and other classroom resources."

For further information, please see Alberta Education Property Tax .