The Tax Installment Plan Service (TIPS) is an optional payment plan for taxpayers to make monthly prepayments towards their next year's property taxes. Property Taxes are billed annually in the middle of the year for taxes for the current calendar year (Jan 1st to Dec 31st).

Monthly Prepayments
Prepayments can be made from July 15th to May 15th by authorizing automatic withdrawal payments from a chequing account at any Canadian financial institution. The City pays interest on taxpayer deposits at an interest rate of 3 per cent below the prime lending rate of the City's bank.

Eligibility Guidelines
As TIPS is a prepayment (or savings) plan for next years property taxes, the current year's property taxes must already be paid in full at the time of application and the applicant must have chequing privileges at a financial institution in Canada.

Payment Options

Option 1: Calculated Monthly Installment
Calculated on the previous year's gross taxes less the Home Owner Grant (if claimed) divided by a maximum of 11 monthly installments. The calculated monthly installment is an estimate and is not a guarantee of the amount of taxes that may be levied. The calculated monthly installment will be recalculated every year.

Option 2: Fixed Monthly Installment
The fixed monthly installment must be mutually agreed upon between the TIPS applicant and the City of Kamloops, at time of application. The fixed monthly installment will NOT change from one year to the next, provided the account in not in arrears.

Note: If any installment payments are returned by the taxpayers bank (for any reason), their tax account will be charged a returned item fee of $25. The taxpayer's Plan will be cancelled after 3 consecutive returned installment payments.

Payment Dates

TIPS payments will be debited on the first business day on or after the 15th of each month.

Authorized prepayments start July 15th and continue to May 15th, for a maximum of 11 consecutive automatic withdrawals. No prepayments will be withdrawn in the month of June.

Enrolment after the July start date (to accumulate next year's estimated net property taxes) would require the applicant to remit the missed payments from July to time of application, or to increase the calculated monthly installment amount.

Payments and interest earned are credited to the tax account each month. The accumulated credits are then applied against the balance due on the Property Tax Notice. An outstanding amount will occur if payments plus interest earned do not match or exceed the amount billed. When this occurs, the outstanding amount must be paid by the taxpayer, by the due date to avoid the 10% penalty charge on the outstanding amount.

Important: Provincial Legislation requires that any current taxes that remain outstanding after the due date shall be assessed a 10 per cent penalty. To avoid this penalty charge, taxpayers must ensure that any balance remaining outstanding on their tax account (after installments and Home Owner Grant have been applied) is paid in full by the due date.