Mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis announced today that she'll freeze the city's business tax at 5.7% over the next four years.

But in reality, that's actually a tax increase.

The business tax is calculated by taking a business's "annual rental value" (ARV) and multiplying it by the business tax rate set by council. So if your annual rental value goes up (as it does for most businesses) then so does the amount of tax you pay. In other words, Judy's "freeze" is a tax hike.

As you can see, unlike income taxes, the city's business tax is blind to whether a business is losing money or making money hand over fist. Like property taxes, it's an archaic form of taxation. 

Over the past few years, the city has dropped the tax rate to account for rising annual rental values - a true tax freeze. That means that if Judy is elected, and freezes the tax rate, then most businesses will now see their tax bills increase.