Pickering Property Tax: Due Dates, Payment and Relief

Pickering property tax for 2026 is calculated at a residential rate of 0.01337288 multiplied by your home’s assessed value, split across four installments due in February, April, July, and October. The bill funds three governments at once: roughly 30.30 percent stays with the City of Pickering for local services like roads, parks, libraries, fire, and snow removal; about 57.82 percent goes to the Region of Durham for police, transit, waste, social services, and paramedics; and the remaining 11.88 percent funds education at a rate set by the Province of Ontario.¹

Calculating What You Owe

The math is simple. Multiply your assessed value by 0.01337288. A home assessed at $586,000 produces an annual bill of roughly $7,836.¹

The assessed value is not what your home would sell for today. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) sets the number, and Ontario assessments are still frozen at a January 1, 2016 valuation date. MPAC normally reassesses every four years, but the province has repeatedly postponed the cycle that was supposed to begin with a January 1, 2020 valuation. So unless you’ve added onto the house or made other physical changes, your 2026 assessment reflects what MPAC thought your property was worth in early 2016.² For most Pickering homeowners, that assessed value is well below current market value.

Your assessed value appears on the property assessment notice MPAC mails you, and you can also look it up through MPAC’s online portal. If you bought recently, your purchase price is not the number used for tax; the MPAC figure is.

2026 Due Dates

Pickering mails two bills a year, each covering two installments.

The interim bill goes out early in the year and is set at 50 percent of what you paid in total the year before, because the current year’s rates haven’t been finalized. The two interim installments are due in February and April. The second interim installment for 2026 was due April 24.³

The final bill arrives once the City finishes its budget and sets the new rates. Starting in 2025, Pickering moved its final installment due dates from June and September to July and October.⁴ Watch the totals when the final bill arrives. If the new rate is higher than last year’s, the full annual increase gets absorbed by the two final payments, which can make them look much larger than the interim ones.

Ways to Pay

The simplest option is a pre-authorized payment plan. Pickering offers two. The monthly plan withdraws twelve equal payments on the 1st, 8th, or 16th of each month, whichever date you pick. The due date plan withdraws the four installment amounts automatically on each due date. Your tax account has to be current to enroll, and once you’re in, you stay in from year to year. Sign up by submitting an application with a voided cheque to the Taxation Section at Pickering City Hall, One The Esplanade.⁵

If you’d rather pay each installment yourself, use your bank’s online bill payment service with the 15-digit roll number from your tax bill as the account identifier. You can also mail a cheque or drop one into the 24-hour drop box at City Hall. Some bank branches take in-person payments, but leave processing time so the payment posts before the deadline.

Many Pickering homeowners pay through their mortgage. If your lender collects a tax portion with each mortgage payment and remits it to the City, confirm periodically that it’s actually being sent on time. You remain responsible for any shortfall.

Missing a Payment

A late payment triggers a 1.25 percent penalty on the outstanding balance on the first day of default, with another 1.25 percent added on the first day of each following month the balance remains unpaid.⁵ A $4,000 overdue balance picks up $50 in the first month alone, and the charges keep stacking.

The bigger problem is what happens if arrears sit. Under the Ontario Municipal Act, if any portion of your taxes is still unpaid on January 1 in the second year after they were originally due, the municipal treasurer can register a tax arrears certificate against the title to your property. You then have one year to pay the full cancellation price, which covers all arrears, current taxes owing, accumulated interest and penalties, and the municipality’s legal and administrative costs. If you don’t pay within that year, the municipality can sell your property at a public tax sale.⁶ Tax sales are rare, but the process is statutory and runs on its own timeline, so don’t leave overdue taxes alone.

If You Think Your Assessment Is Wrong

If MPAC’s assessed value looks too high, file a Request for Reconsideration with MPAC. The deadline is printed on your property assessment notice. MPAC reviews every request and adjusts the value if the evidence supports it. Because the assessment is pegged to January 1, 2016, your case has to show either that comparable homes in your area were worth less than MPAC estimated as of that date, or that MPAC has wrong information about your property’s physical characteristics.²

If the Request for Reconsideration doesn’t resolve the issue, you have 90 days from MPAC’s response to file a formal appeal with the Assessment Review Board. That process involves filing fees, a mandatory meeting between you, MPAC, and the municipality, and potentially a full hearing.⁷ Most homeowners settle the question at the reconsideration stage.

Relief Programs

Low-Income Seniors and Persons With Disabilities

Pickering offers a tax grant for low-income seniors and low-income persons with disabilities. The disability stream requires that you be receiving or eligible for the Ontario Disability Support Program. Applicants for the seniors grant generally need to show they’re receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement or provide equivalent income documentation. Applications must be in by mid-August of the current taxation year, and the form is available through the City’s Finance Department or the City of Pickering website.⁸

Registered Charities

Registered charities occupying commercial or industrial property in Pickering can apply for a 40 percent rebate. You need a Canada Revenue Agency registration number, and the application is due by the last day of February in the year following the tax year.⁸

Selling Your Home

Property tax ends at closing, but the sale itself may create a federal tax obligation. If the Pickering home was your principal residence for every year you owned it, the capital gain is fully exempt. You still have to report the sale on Schedule 3 and designate the property using Form T2091(IND) when you file your return.⁹

A few rules catch people off guard. Only one property per family can be designated as a principal residence in any given year, so if you own a cottage along with your house, one of them won’t qualify for every year of overlap. The exemption normally covers up to half a hectare of land; a larger lot requires you to show the extra land was necessary for the home’s use. And if you sell a property you owned for less than 365 consecutive days, the gain is generally treated as business income rather than a capital gain, unless the sale was triggered by a qualifying life event such as a death in the family, a relationship breakdown, or a safety concern.⁹

1
Let’s Talk Pickering. Planning Pickering’s 2026 Budget
2
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. Forms
3
City of Pickering. Property Taxes
4
City of Pickering. Clearing Up Confusion on the 2025 Property Tax Increase
5
City of Pickering. Paying Property Taxes
6
Ontario. Municipal Act 2001, S.O. 2001, c. 25
7
Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. How to File an Appeal
8
City of Pickering. Tax Deferrals, Grants and Rebates
9
Government of Canada. Principal Residence