Today, June 9, 2014, according to our friends at the Fraser Institute, is Canadian Tax Freedom Day. That’s the day where Canadians, metaphorically, have earned enough money to pay all their taxes.
Tax Freedom Day came a bit earlier for B.C. – our official day was Friday, June 6. That’s a 23-day improvement over the year 2000, when we bottomed out at June 29.
Fraser estimates that a family making $94,378 in B.C. pays $40,121 in total taxes to Ottawa, Victoria and city hall. That’s 42.5 per cent, and an increase of $1,275 over last year, mainly due to EI, CPP, MSP, property taxes and other expensive acronyms.
Tax Freedom Day Provincial Rankings (adjusted for balanced budgets; i.e. making this year’s taxpayers pay for this year’s services):
1. Alberta May 22
2. British Columbia June 6
3. Saskatchewan June 7
4. Prince Edward Island June 9
5. Manitoba June 14
6. New Brunswick June 16
7. (tie) Quebec and Ontario June 17
9. Nova Scotia June 19
10. Newfoundland and Labrador July 2
Is Canada Off Track?
Canada has problems. You see them at gas station. You see them at the grocery store. You see them on your taxes.
Is anyone listening to you to find out where you think Canada’s off track and what you think we could do to make things better?
You can tell us what you think by filling out the survey