OTHER MEASURES

Property Tax
The Budget proposes to give municipalities the ability to give property tax relief to the owners of properties designated to be of historical or architectural value under the Ontario Heritage Act. The relief mechanism, which is to be effective January 1, 2002, will be developed through consultations with involved parties.

In order to allow municipalities to apply a lower tax rate to newly built rental apartment buildings, the "new multi-residential property class" was introduced in 1998. Essentially, a lower tax rate is allowed for the first eight years following construction of the building. Effective January 1, 2002, properties in this class will now be eligible for a lower rate of tax for the first 35 years following construction.

Administrative Matters
The Budget includes measures intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the administration of the provincial taxation system. Specific service standards will be developed in consultation with key stakeholders to permit the evaluation of the performance of the government in the discharge of its administrative responsibilities. These standards are intended to be finalized by September 1, 2001. A process for annually reporting the findings of these evaluations to the public will also be developed.

Streamlined Filing and Audit Procedures
Specific initiatives in this area include:

• Simplifying the payment of corporate tax installments by reducing the frequency of required installments from monthly to quarterly for corporations whose taxes payable in the current or preceding year are at least $2,000, but less than $10,000. This change would be effective for taxation years commencing in 2002.
• Effective for taxation years ending after 2000, companies filing Ontario corporate income tax returns would no longer be required to file a copy of their federal T2 Corporation Income Tax Return and related schedules if these forms have been filed with the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.
• Effective immediately, it will not be necessary to submit copies of supporting documentation with refund claims for gasoline, fuel and tobacco taxes that are less than $500. This information will instead be required to be provided on request.
• The Ministry of Finance will accelerate its ongoing review of all tax forms to eliminate unnecessary forms by introducing multipurpose forms, and to improve the layout and ease of understanding of these forms.
• Audit procedures will be streamlined by undertaking more consolidated audits of multiple provincial tax programs at the same time, where this is feasible and the taxpayer is agreeable to the approach. The Ministry of Finance will also continue to work closely with the federal government to arrange more joint, multi-jurisdictional audits under the same conditions.

Improved Taxpayer Input
Recognizing the role that small businesses play in providing feedback on ways to eliminate red tape, the Budget announced the following measures to obtain and evaluate taxpayer input.

• A Small Business Advisory Committee will be formed to identify and discuss new ways of simplifying tax administration, with the goal of implementing changes by 2002.
• Tax Information Forums will be held across the province to permit small businesses a "one-stop" opportunity to obtain information and ask questions on a variety of tax programs administered in Ontario.

Electronic Service Delivery
Initiatives, which are intended to be implemented by 2002, have been introduced to take advantage of the internet and paperless media. These include:

• An e-mail subscription service to provide new publications, announcements of key dates, or notification of other events.
• Introduction of a new "Tele-Tax" system that will permit taxpayers to obtain recorded messages containing answers to frequently asked questions from a self-serve telephone system.
• Making customer service feedback and other survey tools available via the internet.