Separated Town in Eastern Ontario, with no county above it
Smiths Falls property tax rate, 2024
1.95%of the assessed value on your MPAC notice, each year
$9,746 a yearon a $500,000 home, or about $812 a month
Higher than 88% of the 414 Ontario municipalities
Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. Further right is higher.
Smiths Falls 1.95%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Smiths Falls
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Lowest fifth
Low
Middle fifth
High
Highest fifth
Smiths Falls
Smiths Falls in short
$9,746 a year on a $500,000 home: $8,981 to Smiths Falls council and $765 to schools.
Up 0.13 points since 2019, or $647 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $1,000 a month, home value $300,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.
Smiths Falls has not filed 2025 with the province yet, so this page uses 2024, the newest year it has filed.
Every municipality is compared at its newest filed rate: 283 of the 414 have filed 2025.
Who sets the rate
Two bodies set Smiths Falls's rate: Smiths Falls council and the Province of Ontario, for schools. Smiths Falls has no
county above it, so there is no county or region portion: its own rate of 1.80%
already pays for services that a county would run elsewhere. That is also why comparing Smiths Falls's
municipal rate directly against a township's understates what the township actually pays.
$8,981
Portion
Rate
On $500,000
Share
MunicipalSmiths Falls council
1.80%
$8,981
92%
County or regionNone in Smiths Falls
0.00%
$0
0%
EducationProvince of Ontario
0.15%
$765
8%
Total
1.95%
$9,746
100%
Each rate is rounded to two decimals, so the parts can add up to 0.01 off the total.
How the rate has changed, 2019–2024
Up 0.13 points since 2019. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.13 percentage points, from 1.82% to 1.95%. On a $500,000 home that is $647 a year more than in 2019.
20191.82%$9,100
20201.81%$9,060
20211.83%$9,159
20221.83%$9,159
20231.89%$9,443
20241.95%$9,746
Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath.Each part of the rate, year by year
Over the same years the residential assessment base moved from $545M to
$580M, and the residential levy collected went from $10M
to $11M. A rate rising while the base also grows means the budget grew faster than
property values; a rate falling while the base grows usually means the opposite. Assessment is the figure on the
MPAC notice, still based on 2016 values province-wide.
Year
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Change
On $500,000
2019
1.66%
—
0.16%
1.82%
—
$9,100
2020
1.66%
—
0.15%
1.81%
−0.01 pts
$9,060
2021
1.68%
—
0.15%
1.83%
+0.02 pts
$9,159
2022
1.68%
—
0.15%
1.83%
+0.00 pts
$9,159
2023
1.74%
—
0.15%
1.89%
+0.06 pts
$9,443
2024
1.80%
—
0.15%
1.95%
+0.06 pts
$9,746
Why are Smiths Falls property taxes so high?
Smiths Falls's total rate of 1.95% is 0.55 percentage points above the provincial middle (1.40%). A rate that high usually means the assessment base is small relative to what the budget must cover: $579.8M of taxable residential value funds $11.3M in levy here.
Home values
Homes here are assessed at $128,821 per household, 30% less than the middle ($183,474). Lower values mean it needs a higher rate to raise the same money.
Spending
It spends $7,982 per household, 6% more than the middle ($7,558). It spends more on police (+$1,049), water and wastewater (+$448) and social and family services (+$303), and less on roads and bridges (−$409) and running the municipality (−$171).
← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Police+$1,049
Water and wastewater+$448
Social and family services+$303
Roads and bridges−$409
Running the municipality−$171
More on why
Provincial money
Social services and social housing are partly paid for by provincial transfers, so they do not map one-to-one onto the tax bill.
Across Ontario
Across the 167 places with no county above them, the tax rate follows home values much more closely than spending: where homes are worth more, rates tend to be lower (rank correlation −0.82 for home values, 0.53 for spending). A pattern, not proof of cause.
What it costs to live in Smiths Falls
Cost
Smiths Falls
Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021
$1,000Higher than 53% of 354
$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021
$300,000Lower than 70% of 412
$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2024
$9,746Higher than 88% of 414
$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021
25.8%Higher than 95% of 400
15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020
$61,200Lower than 95% of 405
$84,000
Ontario has no official cost-of-living index for single towns. Statistics Canada’s consumer price index covers only Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay here, and it measures change over time, not the gap between places. These are the costs published for each municipality: what renters paid and owners estimated in the 2021 Census, not today’s asking rents or sale prices.
Places like Smiths Falls
The 5 places closest to Smiths Falls on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among places with no county above them.
Residential is one of 10 classes Smiths Falls reported this year. The tax ratio is the multiple
applied to the residential rate: a ratio of 1.7 on multi-residential means an apartment building pays 1.7×
what a house pays on the same assessed value.
Class
Tax ratio
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Industrial
2.5421110000000002
4.57%
—
0.88%
5.45%
Large Industrial
2.5421110000000002
4.57%
—
0.88%
5.45%
Commercial
1.966105
3.53%
—
0.88%
4.41%
Shopping Centre
1.966105
3.53%
—
0.88%
4.41%
Multi-Residential
2
3.59%
—
0.15%
3.75%
Pipeline
1.4956
2.69%
—
0.88%
3.57%
Parking Lot
1.376274
2.47%
—
0.88%
3.35%
New Multi-Residential
1
1.80%
—
0.15%
1.95%
Residential
1
1.80%
—
0.15%
1.95%
Farmland
0.25
0.45%
—
0.04%
0.49%
Sources and method
Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Smiths Falls files with the Province of Ontario; population, rents and home values from Statistics Canada.
Every source, the method and the limits
Tax rates
Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 22 GPL — Municipal and School Board Taxation. Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Municipal Act s.294(1). Years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024; retrieved 2026-10-11.
Download the file
Spending, households
Financial Information Return Schedule 40 (consolidated expenses by function) and Schedule 02 (households and population).
Population
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0155-01, Population estimates, July 1, by census subdivision. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Rent, home value, income
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence. Rent is the median monthly shelter cost of renter households (rent plus any utilities they pay).
The Ontario middle is the median across the municipalities with a published figure.
Method
Dollar figures are the rate times $500,000 of assessed value. Standing compares Smiths Falls's 2024 total
residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 51 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID
MunID 09004, MAH 55301
Limits
These are the figures Smiths Falls filed with the province. An individual bill can include area-specific charges and
local improvement levies that a municipality-wide rate does not capture. Reference, not tax advice.