08/27/2026
Charts of the Week
Courtesy of Canoe Financial. Source data: Fraser Institute, August 2026.
Some Not-so-fun Facts About Tax
Last summer, we shared a Chart of the Week packed with some decidedly un-fun facts about taxes. Readers seemed to appreciate it, in the same way people appreciate checking their credit card statement. Painful, but useful.
A year later, the latest numbers have been crunched and we thought it was time for an update. So we've refreshed the data and assembled a new list of tax facts that Canadians would probably rather not know, but probably should.
While these tax-related facts and figures may not spark joy, they might serve as a good conversation starter with your clients to spark some tax planning.
First, some background.
Your total tax bill. To compute the total tax bill of the average Canadian family, we need to add up all the various taxes that the family pays to federal, provincial, and local governments. This includes income taxes, payroll taxes, health taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, carbon taxes, vehicle taxes, import taxes, alcohol and to***co taxes, and the list goes on.
The Canadian Consumer Tax Index tracks the total tax bill paid by a Canadian family with average income from 1961 to 2025. The results show that the tax burden faced by the average Canadian family has risen compared with 64 years earlier.
Not-so-fun fact #1: Since 1961, the average Canadian family's total tax bill has increased by 2,928%. That's far more than the increase in the cost of life's necessities, including food, shelter, and clothing. It has also outpaced inflation (946%) and even growth in family income (2,322%).
Not-so-fun fact #2: To be fair, not all of that increase is due to higher taxes. Inflation deserves some of the blame. But even after adjusting for inflation and measuring everything in 2025 dollars, the Consumer Tax Index has risen by 189.5% since 1961. The good news: it's not 2,928%. The bad news: it's still 189.5%.
Not-so-fun fact #3: In 2025, the average Canadian family, including both families and unattached individuals, earned cash income of $121,111 and paid total taxes equaling $50,721. In other words, the total tax bill of the average Canadian family in 2025 amounted to 41.9% of cash income.
Not-so-fun fact #4: If 41.9% sounds high, that's because it is. In 1961, the average Canadian family paid 33.5% of its income in taxes. The tax bite has grown much faster than anyone's affection for paying it.
Not-so-fun fact #5: In 2025, the average family spent more of its income on taxes (41.9%) than on food, shelter, and clothing combined (36.0%). That's right: taxes consumed a larger share of the household budget than life's basic necessities.
