The top 10% of Canada’s earners make 34% of the country’s income, but are paying 54% of income taxes, says a new essay that questions the premise that the “rich” don’t pay enough tax.
“Despite common misperceptions and misleading rhetoric, our top 10 per cent of income-earners pay more than half of Canada’s income taxes — and this group includes people that few would consider wealthy,” said Philip Cross, a former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, in the essay released by the Fraser Institute.
[...] And here’s the kicker. Being in the top 10% of earners in Canada doesn’t mean you are wealthy. In fact, in 2017, any Canadian making $96,000 (or more) was in that group, Cross says.
Most of these evil rich people are your teachers, professors, doctors, and engineers -- and too many are hit by the top marginal income tax rate of 50%+! Yet, a large portion of Canadians think that the rich need to pay more.
Here's another shocking statistic:
The average Canadian household paid nearly $40,000 in taxes last year, more than the combined cost of clothing, food and shelter, according to a new report. The Fraser Institute’s annual Canadian Consumer Tax Index is meant to show how the tax bill has changed over time. Last year’s average tax burden of $39,299 is almost three times what Canadians paid in 1961, after adjusting for inflation – and has risen much faster than the cost of necessities, including housing, the institute said.
No wonder so many are drowning in debt. Clothing and food might be relatively cheap but the cost of shelter and taxes have skyrocketed. Guess what? The governments are largely to blame for the insane real estate bubble as well.
In my area, houses that sold for $250,000 twenty years ago are now being put on the market for close to a million dollars! Even those "rich" people are going to be slaves to their local bank if they want to buy those lavish closets.