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Toronto Revenue Services is a division of the City of Toronto, not the Canada Revenue Agency. It bills and collects property tax, water and waste charges, and the municipal land transfer tax. Your income tax is handled by a different body, and mixing the two up costs people a lot of time on hold.
We’re assuming you meant the city division, since the name matches it. If you came for income tax, the links further down will get you there.
What does Toronto Revenue Services handle?
The city’s own pages describe the work. Revenue Services deals with property tax billing, payments and collections, and utility billing for water, sewage and solid waste. It also runs the tax and water relief programs, assessment appeals, and payments for parking tickets.
Three taxes you might meet around a home purchase sit with it too: the Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT), the Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax and the Vacant Home Tax. For general city questions, residents are pointed to 311.
What it doesn’t touch is your paycheque tax, your T1 return or HST. Those belong to the CRA. The income tax calculator covers the federal and Ontario side if that’s what you were after.
How is Toronto’s land transfer tax worked out?
This is the bill where the numbers surprise buyers. Toronto charges its own tax on top of Ontario’s, using the same style of graduated bands, so each slice of the price gets its own rate. For a one or two family home, the city’s page shows these bands from April 1, 2026.
| Part of the price | MLTT rate |
|---|---|
| Up to $55,000 | 0.5% |
| $55,000 to $250,000 | 1.0% |
| $250,000 to $400,000 | 1.5% |
| $400,000 to $2,000,000 | 2.0% |
| $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 | 2.5% |
| $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 | 4.4% |
| $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 | 5.45% |
| $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 | 6.5% |
| $10,000,000 to $20,000,000 | 7.55% |
| Over $20,000,000 | 8.6% |
Other kinds of property use an older scale, which is 2% on everything above $400,000. The non-resident speculation tax is a flat 10%, in place since January 1, 2025.
What does it cost on a $900,000 home?
Run the bands and you get $14,475 of Toronto tax: $275 on the first $55,000, $1,950 on the next $195,000, $2,250 on the next $150,000 and $10,000 on the last $500,000. Ontario’s land transfer tax has the same bands up to $2 million, as the province’s page on calculating land transfer tax shows, so the province takes $14,475 too. That’s $28,950 together before any rebate, which is a serious pile of money to find on closing day.
A smaller purchase shows the same pattern. On $600,000 the same bands give $275, $1,950, $2,250 and then $4,000 on the last $200,000, so $8,475 to the city and another $8,475 to the province, or $16,950 in all. Nothing about the bands is hidden. The surprise is just that people budget for one tax and get two.
First-time buyers get relief. The city’s rebate page, last modified December 18, 2025, offers up to $4,475, and the buyer must be at least 18, move in within nine months and never have owned a home anywhere in the world. City Council asked staff in December 2025 to look at a bigger rebate, but we found no change in force in November 2026, so check the page again before you budget. Ontario’s own refund for first-time buyers is up to $4,000, and you have 18 months after closing to ask for it.
Put your own price into the land transfer tax calculator, then add the other costs with the closing costs calculator. Buying from abroad? The non-resident buyer tax calculator covers that case.
What about the yearly property tax bill?
Every year you own, a property tax bill arrives. A ballpark number is on offer in the property tax calculator. We haven’t quoted Toronto’s current rates here because we didn’t confirm them on a city page, so go by your own bill for the real figure.
Think the assessment is too high? Appeals are listed among the services Revenue Services runs, and the city page that explains them is where you’ll find the deadlines. Miss one and you wait for next year.
Who do you call about what?
Say Dana in Scarborough gets an envelope and isn’t sure whose it is. A notice of assessment for income tax comes from the CRA. A property tax bill, a water bill or a Vacant Home Tax notice comes from the city. Different offices, different phone numbers, and neither can see the other’s records.
Two other slips are worth dodging. Buyers often forget the MLTT is a second tax, so quoting only the provincial figure leaves thousands of dollars out of a Toronto budget. And people trust a rebate amount they read last year, on a page the city may have updated since.
Official page on this topic: City of Toronto: Property tax.
The sources behind this page
The list of services and the MLTT bands come from the City of Toronto’s pages on Revenue Services and MLTT rates and fees. The Ontario bands were checked against Ontario’s land transfer tax page, and the worked example is our own arithmetic. This site has no link to the City of Toronto, the province or the CRA. The City of Toronto rebate page was last modified December 18, 2025, and the bands were read on its rates page. All official pages were checked in November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is Toronto Revenue Services the same as the CRA?
No. Toronto Revenue Services is a division of the City of Toronto. It handles property tax, water and waste billing and the municipal land transfer tax. The CRA handles your income tax, T1 return and GST/HST. Each office is separate and cannot see the other's records.
Do I pay land transfer tax twice in Toronto?
Yes. A buyer of a Toronto home pays Ontario's land transfer tax and the city's municipal land transfer tax. Both use graduated bands, and up to $2,000,000 the bands match. On a $900,000 home that is $14,475 to each, so $28,950 together before any rebate.
How much is the Toronto first-time buyer rebate?
The city's page shows a rebate of up to $4,475 for first-time buyers, last modified December 18, 2025. Ontario separately refunds up to $4,000 of its own tax, which you claim within 18 months of registration. Check both pages before closing, since rules can change.
What are Toronto's municipal land transfer tax rates in 2026?
For one or two family homes the city lists 0.5% up to $55,000, 1.0% to $250,000, 1.5% to $400,000 and 2.0% to $2,000,000. Higher bands from April 1, 2026 run from 2.5% above $2,000,000 up to 8.6% above $20,000,000. Other property types use an older scale.
Who do I contact about a property tax bill or assessment appeal?
Property tax bills, water bills and the Vacant Home Tax come from the City of Toronto, which also runs assessment appeal information through Revenue Services, with 311 for general city questions. A notice of assessment for income tax comes from the CRA, so use its own contact channels for that.
- How Canadian income tax works: brackets and credits
How federal and provincial Canadian income tax stack up, what marginal and average rates mean, and how credits and deductions change your bill