Homeowners lucky enough to have larger, pricier properties in Toronto are paying far less dues to the city in what is being called an unfair tax trend that the Star broke this week.

Residents struggling to make ends meet amid record inflation, outrageous rent and real estate prices, and the city's mind-blowingly high cost of living overall will be enraged to discover that many houses on the lower end of the spectrum are being overtaxed, while many pricier ones are not, according to the new in-depth investigation.

Doesn’t even include all the infrastructure subsidies auto-oriented neighbourhoods benefit from. smh

— Chris Holt (@IsOnTheFence) July 13, 2023

After surveying some 12,000 home sales, journalists found that the body that determines property taxes both "assessed the cheapest homes at values higher than their sale prices more often than the most expensive homes" and vice versa.

The inquality means homes owned by wealthier people are often taxed at far less than they should be based on their actual worth — sometimes more than 20 per cent less —with the reverse also being true, putting an unfair tax burden on working- and middle-income residents.

The people most able to afford a rate hike are the ones paying less than their fair share today.

— Jodi Koberinski (@JodiKoberinski) July 13, 2023

The owners of one house cited by the outlet, located on the prestigous Bridle Path, somehow paid $10,500 less in property taxes than they should have based on the sale price of the mansion.

Another home was purchased for $5 million but under-assessed at only $3.9 million when it came to calculating taxes. For the city to make up the lost tax revenue for this one residence, one expert noted, a whopping 13 less expensive homes would need to be over-assessed by the same amount of 21 per cent for tax purposes.

This information is a particularly hard blow now that the gap between the richest and poorest people in the country is growing at a pace never seen before, according to StatCan data.

I've always wondered what the heck home value has to do with costs to service. Why isn't property tax based on house & lot size? Why do compact neighbourhoods pay more when they cost less to service? Big house & lot -- pay more.

— Marta O'Brien (@archhistory) July 13, 2023

Apparently, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), the body that gets paid tens of millions by the city to determine these tax figures, has said its assessments are impartial and accurate, as proven by a recent internal quality control audit.