Tax Freedom Day is finally here, think-tank says – CTV News

Meredith MacLeod, CTVNews.ca Published Friday, June 9, 2017 12:16PM EDT Last Updated Friday, June 9, 2017 12:32PM EDT

Perhaps you feel unshackled today?

Aside from being a Friday on the cusp of summer, this Friday, June 9 is special because it is Tax Freedom Day, says the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.

This is the day average Canadians officially start working to bring home the bacon to their own larders, rather than turning it over to tax collectors, according to the think-tank.

Tax Freedom Day is highly dependent on the province in which you live because provincial tax rates vary a great deal. The earliest comes in Alberta on May 21 and the latest in Newfoundland and Labrador on June 25.

The Fraser Institute has a tax freedom calculator that takes into account the province you live in, family status and income.

The average Canadian family (of two or more people) will earn $108,674 in income in 2017 and pay a total of $47,135 in taxes, says the Fraser Institute, based on models created from data from Statistics Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency. That translates to 43.4 per cent paid out in taxes of kinds income, property, fuel, sales, health, carbon, sin and a range of hidden taxes. If all that tax had to be paid up front, it would leave the average Canadian family paying every dollar earned until June 8 to local, provincial and federal taxes.

It's difficult for average Canadians to add up all the taxes they pay in a year because the different levels of government levy such a wide range of taxes, and thats why we do these calculations to give Canadians a better understanding of exactly how much they pay to government, said Charles Lammam, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute, in a news release.

Tax Freedom Day helps put the total tax burden into perspective, and helps Canadians understand just how much of their money they pay in taxes every year.

A day later in 2017

This years national tax freedom celebration comes a day later than it did in 2016 because the average tax bill is expected to increase faster (at 2.4 per cent) than growth in income (2.2 per cent).

Canadas Tax Freedom Day has been as late as June 25 in 2000, according to the right-leaning Fraser Institute. In 1961, it was May 3 (thats the first time the calculation was made) and in 1981, it was May 30.

Pattie Lovett-Reid, chief financial commentator for CTV News, says there is disagreement about the Fraser Institutes calculation. The left-leaning Broadbent Institute in Ottawa, for instance, says its inflated and that only two per cent of working Canadians pay more than 30 per cent in income taxes and that the effective tax rate for the typical Canadian family is more like 24 per cent.

Bottom line is death, taxes, those are the only certainties we know for sure and taxes get paid because they go into healthcare, infrastructure and different programs, she told BNN Friday.

The Fraser Institute says its tax freedom calculation is not intended to question the value Canadians get for their taxes but to look at the price paid for a product government."

"Tax Freedom Day is not a reflection of the quality of the product, how much of it each of us receives, or whether we get our money's worth. These are questions only each of us can answer for ourselves."

Forecasts indicate Canadians will pay, on average, $1,126 more in taxes this year, says the think-tank. Almost half of that ($542) is income taxes, while sales taxes will increase $311 and energy-related taxes will climb $204.

But, according to the report, "liquor, tobacco, amusement, and other excise taxes, payroll and health taxes, and import duties," all will decline.

The Fraser Institute also calculates what it calls the Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day. That marks when tax freedom would arrive - June 18 this year - if governments had to increase taxes to balance budgets, rather than using deficits to cover spending.

Read the full Tax Freedom Day report here.

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Tax Freedom Day is finally here, think-tank says - CTV News