Don’t Listen to the Toronto Sun: Here’s Why You Should Ignore the Fraser Institute’s Discredited ‘Tax Freedom Day’
It’s that time of year again when the Fraser Institute falsely claims Canadians spend nearly half their annual income paying taxes,.
In this year’s “Tax Freedom Day” report — an annual publicity stunt staged by the right-wing think tank– the Fraser Institute claims today is the first day of the year that so-called “average families” have supposedly earned enough income to cover their annual tax bill.
According to the Fraser Institute’s discredited calculations, Tax Freedom Day 2019 falls on June 13th because Canadians will spend “44.7%” of their incomes on taxes.
Of course, the Fraser Institute’s 44.7% number is an exaggeration that does not come anywhere to close to reflecting an “average” Canadian family’s tax bill.
According to a 2017 report by economists Richard Shillington and Robin Shaban debunking Tax Freedom Day, most middle-income Canadian families typically pay an effective income tax rate that’s generally between “10% to 19%.”
Tax filers who earn $250,000 or more pay an average effective tax rate of 29%.
The reason the Fraser Institute is able to inflate its number as high as “44.7%” is because the right-wing think tank adds every tax they can imagine to the tax bill of the so-called “average” family.
Even Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley admits the Fraser Institute is “not just talking about income tax,” noting the right-wing think tank engineered its number by adding together “all the taxes Canadians pay from payroll taxes like EI, sales taxes, property taxes, liquor and tobacco taxes, even auto taxes.”
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