This article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Jack Mintz, May 5, 2023
I had a weird dream last night: with the Canada Revenue Agency employees on strike, I no longer had to pay income taxes for three years. I woke up in a giddy mood but then reality hit. At Monday’s filing, my tax bill reminded me I’m paying a lot more income tax today than I did seven years ago, largely due to federal and provincial tax hikes.
At least I’m not alone. The OECD confirmed in its Taxing Wages report released last week that most Canadians are paying more personal income taxes today than in 2015. Despite Prime Minister Trudeau’s rhetoric, personal income tax burdens have not fallen for the middle class. In fact, they haven’t fallen for any class since 2015.
Canada has one of the highest personal tax burdens (excluding social security taxes) among OECD countries. As a share of GDP, personal income taxes are over 12 per cent here, compared to 10.8 per cent in the United States and an OECD average of 8.3 per cent.
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