The Fraser Institute just announced that June 9 is Happy Tax Freedom Day 2017 (although the date varies depending on where you live in Canada). According to the Fraser Institute calculations, from that day onward, employees are finally working for themselves and their family. Moreover, if you had to pay all your taxes up front to different levels of government, you are now in the clear to keep the rest of your earnings until a new year begins.
The average Canadian family works almost half a year to pay taxes in 2017.
Since governments impose a litany of taxes—some of which are visible but many are hidden—it’s very difficult for the average Canadian to get a clear sense of all the taxes they pay. That’s why every year the Fraser Institute calculates Tax Freedom Day, a handy measure of the total tax burden imposed on Canadian families by the federal, provincial and local governments.” (Fraser Institute)
Below is a summary of the Fraser Institutes findings:
- In 2017, the average Canadian family will earn $108,674 in income and pay a total of $47,135 in taxes (43.4%).
- If the average Canadian family had to pay its total tax bill of $47,135 up front, it would have worked until June 8 to pay the total tax bill imposed on them by all three levels of government (federal, provincial, and local).
- This means that in 2017, the average Canadian family will celebrate Tax Freedom Day on June 9.
- Tax Freedom Day in 2017 arrives one day later than in 2016, when it fell on June 8, because the average Canadian family’s total tax bill is expected to increase at a faster rate this year (2.4%) than the growth in income (2.2%).
- The Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day for Canada arrives on June 18. Put differently, if governments had to increase taxes to balance their budgets instead of financing expenditures with deficits, Tax Freedom Day would arrive 9 days later.
Tax Freedom Day by Jurisdictions
Tax Freedom Day for each Canadian jurisdiction varies according to the extent of the provincially levied tax burden. This year, the earliest provincial Tax Freedom Day falls on May 21 in Alberta; the latest in Newfoundland & Labrador on June 25.
In some jurisdictions, Tax Freedom Day occurs in 2017:
- In Alberta on May 21
- In Saskatchewan on May 29
- In Prince Edward Island on June 4
- In British Columbia on June 4
- In Manitoba on June 6
- In Ontario on June 7
- In Canada on June 9
- In New Brunswick on June 9
- In Nova Scotia on June 11
- In Quebec on June 21
- In Newfoundland and Labrador on June 25
The full Fraser Institute Tax Freedom Day report can be accessed here.
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- Call for a ban on NDAs in certain cases - March 1, 2023
But I *like* paying taxes!
At the cottage I don’t have to pay for the cottage road, but instead I have to maintain my sections it with the sweat of my brow. Why’s you’d think I was a medieval serf, labouring on my lord’s land (;-))
I’d really prefer to pay taxes to the country and have them hire someone to maintain the road.