Who We are ?
TPS offers a wide range of
professional services, including but not limited to, business,
legal and political consulting services.
Our specialty is assisting SMFE's (Small, Medium Family
Enterprises) in whatever areas they require in to assistance survive
and prosper. Our areas of expertise include property tax appeals,
small claims, collections, incorporations, trademarks, financial
matters, criminal matters, case management for superior and supreme
court, product import and export, tax court, regulatory affairs and
issues with the government.
Tuck's Professional Services is not a lawyer, solicitor or
barrister.
People who are better prepared have a higher success rate when appealing an unfair property assessment.
Tuck's Professional Services brings Property Tax Assessment experience since 1990 to either guide you through the appeal
process or to act as your agent in more complex legal proceedings.
Visit our "Property Tax Services" page for more information on complex property types, and tax tips.
Is your assessment unfair? We may be help you
In the Province of Ontario your property is supposed to
be assessed based upon the "ACTUAL MARKET VALUE" estimate
of your property as of a specific date.
Reality is much different. The entire property tax system
in Ontario for over 50 years has been geared to confuse
the taxpayer, and everyone else involved in the system.
Ontario has one of the highest realty taxes per property
in the industrialized world. There are over 16 billion
dollars received annually from some 4.3 million
properties. Ontario's program over the
years, has created one of the most dysfunctional and
expensive assessment revenue based systems in the free
world! Individual homeowners, as well as multi-national
corporations and others, need to hire "COST EFFECTIVE
PARALEGAL PROPERTY TAX PROFESSIONALS" to routinely review
their interim tax notices, final tax bills, and annual
assessment notices, as well as any supplemental notices
received during the year.
Our Professionalism
Our firm, in an overwhelming 95% of the cases brought to us, are able to
help get our clients cost reduced! As Tuck's Professional
Services is a full time firm employing a number of
trained and experienced professionals. We not only know
the game, but we are on the leading edge of redesigning
the game to be more fair and accurate. Our firm uses
online access to keep up with the Ontario Superior Court
and the Canadian Supreme Court relevant legal decisions,
and monitors the Assessment Review Board decisions for
applicable precedents.
- We also track all applicable legal and regulatory
changes, sales, leasing information etc. and are active
politically with the various government entities
involved in the "Ontario Property Tax Game".
- We meet with the senior members of the provincial
government, municipalities, government agencies, and
members of the Provincial Parliament to provide "Real
Case Studies" to lobby on behalf of our clients to
correct flaws in the system.
- Our Property Tax professionals have the knowledge to
analyze the applicable laws, facts, and issues and then
to act as your expert to support an estimate of value
and / or to refute the government's estimate of value.
- We present conclusive, documented evidence based on
our broad experience and accepted standards of practice
in several different fields.
How We can assist You ?
There are 100's of millions of dollars in illegal fees
being collected by the municipalities due to taxpayers
either not having all of the information necessary at the
right time to minimize their fees and / or failing to
file under the right laws and regulations, the properly
prepared applications! Quality control issues, computer
and / or data entry errors all lead to potential for
errors. The millions of taxpayers, and thousands of
municipal and provincial staff involved in creating your assessment values, interim and final tax
bills, adjustments for this, and that, quite often do not
themselves understand the complex and ever changing
systems.
- Our Professionals can review your property
assessments, frozen roll and capping calculations and
tax bills, to determine exactly what your correct
liability is.
- Our experienced professionals can perform an
in-depth analysis of your property classification,
property management system and compliance procedures,
and other factors.
- We can identify problems and areas needing
improvement and communicate the results of our review.
Our Cost-effective Professional Service
The legal, procedural, accounting, and regulatory
complexity of the property assessment related fees and
charges in Ontario has created the need for
"Cost-effective Professional Services" that are able to
provide timely assistance to Ontario property owners and
occupiers of Ontario based real estate.
Our firm does something that, to our knowledge, no one
else does - @ $65 to $85 per hour for court time
[depending which Paralegal Professionals work on your
file], and $55 per hour for paralegal support services we
provide the best possible paralegal services available in
Ontario on property assessment appeals and other legal
and government issues. As our reputation for winning has
grown, we are more and more facing and beating, the best
law firms in the Province of Ontario that are used by
government.
- THE SECRET TO MINIMIZING YOUR PROPERTY RELATED FEES
AND CHARGES IS TO HAVE OUR "TOP GUNS" STAY ON TOP OF THE
SITUATION ON YOUR BEHALF TO OPTIMIZE YOUR RESULTS EVERY
DAY, OF EVERY YEAR. As most of you are aware the system
is so complex, and "User Unfriendly" that full time
specialists are required to "Stay on top of your
rights".
- OUR FEE FOR SERVICE ON AN ONGOING BASIS APPROACH is
revolutionizing how property owners in Ontario protect
themselves, and "THEIR BOTTOM LINES" from paying
unnecessary charges, and fees. You need to fax, or
e-mail our team your interim and final tax bills as soon
as they come in, as well as the assessment notices, for
our review. Our detail oriented, hands on approach
includes the following steps;.
- Verification of the accuracy of all assessment
records, frozen roll, and capping calculations from 1995
to date.
- Site specific details of size, type of construction,
uses, and other factors. Local vicinity verification of
market factors and conditions.
- Review of all municipal tax bills and associated
worksheets and regulations from 1995 to date.
- Segregation of real, personal, and intangible
property values.
- Identification of market conditions and inequities
among comparable property owners in local, regional, and
provincial wide marketplaces.
- Review and assist in tax classification management
cost control of your property. Identification and
preparation of rebates, exemptions, credits, and
abatements.
- Confirmation of the correct conversion in the 1997
frozen rolls calculations.
- Independent legal evaluation of options under the
various laws and regulations.
- Independent evaluation analysis of value on an
ongoing basis.
- Site-specific assertions of your rights under the
law for your specific property.
- Routine ongoing verification that the current and
past charges and assessments are correct and that the
various capping and other controls have been
interpreted and applied correctly.
- Professional assistance prior to buying property and
/ or acquiring property.
- Professional assistance prior to selling property
- Professional assistance in staged development of
property.
- Structural guidance on how best to hold, develop,
lease, manage etc. your businesses and properties to
minimize assessment related fees expansion of existing
facilities, major renovations, and plant closures and
curtailments, foreclosures, etc.
All of these events
present property tax savings opportunities. Early tax
planning, ideally before an event occurs, can make the
most of these opportunities to reduce and / or minimize
your liability as a result of assessment related
charges. Assessments are often based on costs - but
costs do not always reflect value. Our property tax
professionals can help you analyze your property value
and ensure that your property tax liability is not
inflated with excess costs that do not contribute to
value. Any change in operations, market, or operating
conditions affects your property taxes. Our tax planning
professionals can help you identify property tax savings
opportunities. PROPERTY CLASSIFICATION AND RECORD
KEEPING For property tax purposes classes of property
may be treated differently, and have different levels of
assessment and / or different rates of taxation. In
addition, classification systems may differ between tax
jurisdictions. Accurate classification can minimize
property tax costs. The distinction between real and
personal property is critical. In jurisdictions that do
not tax personal property, an item incorrectly
classified, as real property will be unnecessarily
taxed. In jurisdictions that tax both real and personal
property, an item that can be classified, as personal
property is depreciable, resulting in a lower overall
assessment.
The balance between GST, PST, and other
taxation declarations can significantly impact present
and future costs. Lawyers involved in business purchases
involving real property routinely fail to declare the
appropriate breakdowns on land transfer certificates,
thus causing unnecessary assessment related charges.
Our
property tax professionals have extensive experience in
the classification of property and are familiar with the
intricacies of jurisdictional classification systems
throughout the Ontario system.
TUCK'S NOI ENHANCEMENT
PLAN
Our Property Tax Professionals can follow up on the
development of a "Tuck's NOI Enhancement Plan" for your
property and / or properties in Ontario. We either
handle it, and / or work with your staff to implement
ongoing property tax reduction procedures by assisting
you in the ongoing relationship and negotiations with an
assessor until the minimum level of tax liability is
achieved.
Our firm then maintains permanent records of
vacancy and financial trends to ensure minimum tax
liability levels are maintained on a go forward basis
Our firm proactively designs and submits all of your
annual information for everything from vacancy
applications under the Municipal Act Section 442.5, to
your required financial information under Section 11 of
the assessment Act.
IT is very important that the right
information, presented in the best possible format, and
at the right times of year is done on your behalf.
We
can thus assure that your assessments are kept as low as
possible, and that trouble can be headed off ahead of
time, and that the roll changes are not "Bad News".
Expensive and complicated appeals can often be avoided.
No person, or organization with any amount of real
estate holdings in Ontario should be without this type
of permanent professional representation in these
matters.
TUCK'S PROFESSIONAL NO I SOLUTIONS WHY THE NEED
FOR RETAINED PROFESSIONAL PROPERTY TAX PARALEGAL
SUPPORT? Besides being extremely complex, the local
assessors hold most of the cards. They deal regularly
with uninformed taxpayers who do not often have the
required information, training, time, or experience to
properly assert their rights. Large corporations are
often too busy with their own core business to pay
annual attention to their property assessment status
issues. IT IS A VICTIM'S GAME, and there is nothing
fair, nor reasonable about what assessors have been
trained and managed for decades to do to Ontario
property owners.
Our firm often describes it as you, and
your wife were going out one evening and leaving someone
that you think you trust in care of your home, and then
you come home early to find 3 of your 5 rooms of
furniture loaded onto a truck. On challenge the "trusted
person" offers to return 1 of the 3 rooms, and shows no
guilt about what is going on. REMEMBER BY DEFINITION -
THE VAST MAJORITY OF ONTARIO PROPERTIES ARE OVER ASSESSED. MPAC staff are literally in our opinion, and experience
stealing 30% more from almost everyone, and when forced
to, will, as a "favour" return 10% to 20%, and then try
and "Con You" into believing that you are now being
treated really well. "THEIR" entire game is minimum
complaints, and minimum reductions to "buy-off" those
that do complain, particularly with any skill! JUST BY
HIRING OUR FIRM YOU GET AN EDGE!
By hiring our firm
there is an immediate change in the game. We understand
the laws, regulations, procedures, and "Their Culture"
at the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. By
introducing a professional paralegal agent the whole
process becomes different. "They" know that we know
their game, and that any flaws we can find will usually
lead to significant reductions.
Our firm, by simply
asking all of the right questions have caused
significant reductions in our client's assessments, thus
property related costs.
Our firm has handled properties
where a $300,000 assessment was in dispute with the
client being offered a lowered assessment of $225,000 by
the assessment people. With us involved we got it
lowered to $150,000. The same has happened with a
$2,100,000 property that had never been question by a
large multi-nation corporation. We got it reduced to
$1,200,000, and backdated two years. The client
received over $40,000 in a cash rebate.
Clients
appealing properties are often faced with unfamiliar
questions relating to appraisals, with terms such as
obsolescence, fair market value, discounted cash flow,
and net present values, and are uncertainly about what
to ask for, and how the processes work.
AT TUCK'S
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES WE WIN FOR YOU!
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