Property Assessment and Taxation

All municipal governments and the Government of Alberta rely on property taxes to fund public services. To help municipal officials be informed on how Alberta’s property assessment and taxation system works, we have created a guide called Property Assessment and Taxation: A Guide for Alberta’s Municipal Leaders.  

The guide covers topics such as: 

  • How different types of property are assessed 
  • How municipal property tax rates are set 
  • How provincial property taxes are set and collected by municipalities 
  • Answers to common questions about property taxes 

Materials to Communicate on Provincial Property Taxes

Polling shows that only about half of Albertans know their property tax bill includes a property tax levied by the Government of Alberta. To help municipalities communicate the difference between provincial and municipal property taxes to residents and businesses, ABmunis offers several materials that municipalities can use such as bill stuffer documents and customizable graphs and images for use in print, social media, or on your website.

Download the files. The files will download as an extractable ZIP file that you should find in your downloads folder. If you are unable to access the files, please email advocacy [at] abmunis.ca (advocacy[at]abmunis[dot]ca).

Materials to Help Explain Why Policing Costs are Driving Property Tax Increases

ABmunis has developed a ready-to-use insert that municipalities with populations under 5,000 can include with property tax bills to help explain how policing expenses affect property taxes. Designed to make a complex issue easier to understand for residents, it clearly outlines the connection between provincial policing costs and local property taxes in a way that’s transparent and approachable.

Download the files. The files will download as an extractable ZIP file that you should find in your downloads folder. If you are unable to access the files, please email advocacy [at] abmunis.ca (advocacy[at]abmunis[dot]ca).

Data centres are buildings that house large numbers of computers and equipment that provide computing power needed for cloud services, artificial intelligence, websites, online applications, and other digital services. Alberta has a strategy to attract global investment in data centres so municipal leaders should be familiar with the potential tax revenue that can be generated from a data centre. 


Is the full cost of a data centre taxable by a municipality?  

No. Most of the data centre’s value often represents the computing equipment, but the computing equipment is not subject to assessment and property tax in Alberta. 


What aspects of a data centre are subject to municipal property tax?  

  • Like a typical commercial building, the building and improvements include HVAC systems, chillers, pumps, or other mechanical systems that serve the property. 
  • The land and improvements to the land (e.g. fences, retaining walls, etc.). 
  • Power generation and back-up power components. 


What assessment rules apply to components of a data centre?  

The buildings, structures, and land are assessed at market value like any other commercial property.  

If the power generation property is connected to Alberta’s power grid, it is assessed as a linear property. If it is not connected to the grid, it is assessed as machinery and equipment. This can impact the assessment value because the province has different assessment policies for each type of industrial property.  


How can we estimate what property tax will be generated from a proposed data centre?  

Your municipality will need details on what is being built and the estimated costs, excluding the computing equipment. If any components are assessed as machinery and equipment, you will need to check if your municipality has a tax rate for machinery and equipment. We recommend working with an assessor and the developer to estimate the potential tax revenue.  


What taxes does the province charge to data centres?  

The Government of Alberta collects different revenues from data centres.  

  • In 2026, the Alberta government implemented a 2 per cent levy on the value of the computing equipment of data centres of 75 megawatts or greater that are connected to Alberta’s power grid. If a data centre is profitable, the levy is fully deductible against the corporate income tax paid by the business. The levy is a provincial revenue under Alberta’s Data Centres Strategy.  
  • The province also collects education property tax from data centres except for any components that are classified as machinery and equipment.  


Where can I get more information?  

The Government of Alberta offers an AI data centre concierge team through an online portal.

The Government of Alberta is exempt from paying municipal property taxes on its land and buildings. Municipal governments still provide services to provincially owned properties, so the Alberta government pays a grant in place of taxes (GIPOT) to municipal governments, but only for certain types of property. To help explain what properties and taxes are eligible for GIPOT funding, ABmunis has created this fact sheet.

Alberta Municipalities’ members often pass resolutions that seek changes to provincial legislation or policy related to property assessment or taxation. To learn about those resolutions, please visit our Resolutions Library and search for “tax” or “requisition”.