Dear colleagues, 

As you may know, the provincial Property Tax Deferment program is being modernized to move away from the manual submission, adjudication and management of new and renewal applications, to an online process that centralize this program, and will greatly improve efficiency and service levels to citizens.

We are working simultaneously on two interconnected projects to achieve these goals: 

• Firstly, to bring the deferment program into GenTax, our account management system currently used by all other provincial property tax units, and
• Secondly, to develop a “decision engine” – an electronic, citizen-facing application portal that will be able to immediately adjudicate up to 50% of all deferment applications received.

Our two key partners are the Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA) and FAST (GenTax vendor).

As one of our major key stakeholders with the deferment program, we want to ensure that you have representation at the table as we move forward with these two projects, as we see your input as critically important.

To that end, we would like to invite you to participate in a working group designed to help inform the creation of the decision engine and the move into Gentax from our current Tax Deferment Application (TDA) program. 

These projects are just getting underway and our implementation date is April, 2020, prior to the 2020 tax season. 

We are looking for broad representation from municipalities in terms of:

•             Municipal size (small, medium, large)

•             Municipal location (large centres, smaller communities)

•             Municipal expertise in deferment 

All meetings will be scheduled to allow for conference and video call technology where possible.  

We would be interested in a working group of between six and ten municipal representatives (preferably reps who understand the deferment program, the current processes, and how municipal software systems work) and we would encourage a few of the vendors to participate also. 

Please reply to me directly by July 29, 2019 to advise of your interest in participating on this working group. 

Once all replies are received, I will identify the working group membership, and set up the first meeting.

Thank you,

Kally Khaira

Director, Annual Property Tax

Property Taxation Branch

Revenue Division, Ministry of Finance

t: 778.698.9536 | c: 250.893.7102

e: Kally.Khaira@gov.bc.ca