Top earners already shoulder majority of Canada’s tax bill, says Fraser Institute
Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the report, said the findings challenge a widely held view about who bears the greatest tax burden in Canada.
“The idea that top earners don’t pay their ‘fair share’ of taxes ignores the evidence that these families pay a disproportionately large share of the total tax bill,” Fuss said.
Advisor toolkit
For advisors fielding client questions about tax fairness debates, the report offers a useful framework: comparing a group’s share of income earned against its share of taxes paid. Measured this way, the top quintile stands out as the only income group paying more than its proportional share, the study found.
The report also warns that pushing tax rates higher on top earners could backfire from a revenue standpoint.
Previous research cited in the study found that tax hikes on high-income Canadians often trigger behavioural shifts, including tax planning, income shifting, and avoidance strategies, that shrink the taxable base and leave governments collecting less than projected.
