Fraser Institute research shows that biggest earners pay a higher share of tax than their share of income
Canada’s top income earning families are not paying their fair share of taxes – they’re paying more!
That’s according to a new report from the Fraser Institute which reveals that the top 20% of income earners pay more than 53% of all taxes including personal income, sales, and property taxes.
By contrast, the bottom 20% of income earners pay 2% of total taxes.
“The assertion that the top 20% of earners in Canada are not paying their fair share is simply not supported by the evidence,” said Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute and coauthor of Measuring Progressivity in Canada’s Tax System, 2023.
The study also looked at the share of taxes paid compared to the share of income earned. For the top 20% of income earners, they earned 46% of all income, 7 percentage points below the share of tax they paid. For the lowest income earners, they earned 5% of all income, three percentage points more than the share of tax they paid.
Having a higher share of income earned compared to tax paid was the case for the entire 80% outside the top 20%.
Too much tax?
A recent survey from the Fraser Institute, found that most Canadians believe the top rate of tax is too high and should be capped at 50% and more respondents thought that the wealthiest should pay the same or less tax than everyone else compared to those who thought they should pay more.
The same research found that 70% believe some people don’t pay their fair share.
“Despite the common misperception that top earners don’t pay their ‘fair share’ of taxes, in reality these households pay a disproportionately large share of the total tax bill,” concluded Fuss.
