City hall screws up pre-authorized tax payments

On March 1, 2017, the City of Toronto became aware that some customers enrolled in the city’s Pre-Authorized Tax Payment Program had an additional property tax payment withdrawn from their accounts in error.

City of Toronto to correct error in withdrawal of March 1 pre-authorized property tax payments

The error only affects customers enrolled in the city’s Pre-Authorized Property Tax Payment Plan on the 2- and 6-instalment plan that had payments scheduled to be withdrawn on March 1, 2017.

The city has worked with its banking service provider, Royal Bank of Canada, to resolve the issue swiftly and ensure that the duplicate billing is reversed immediately. Corrections to customers’ bank accounts are being made today, on the same day that the property tax payments were scheduled to be withdrawn from customers’ accounts. This should prevent customers from incurring bank fees for non-sufficient funds.

Approximately 44,000 accounts enrolled in the 2- and 6-installment pre-authorized payment plan were affected.

The city will work to prevent this from happening again in the future. The city sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience this has caused its customers.

— Jennifer Zaniewski