Study

| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.

Taxes, not basic necessities make up largest Canadian household expense

Summary

  • The Canadian Consumer Tax Index tracks the total tax bill of the average Canadian family from 1961 to 2015. Including all types of taxes, that bill has increased by 1,939% since 1961.
  • Taxes have grown much more rapidly than any other single expenditure for the average Canadian family: expenditures on shelter increased by 1,425%, clothing by 746%, and food by 645% from 1961 to 2015.
  • The 1,939% increase in the tax bill has also greatly outpaced the increase in the Consumer Price Index (706%), which measures the average price that consumers pay for food, shelter, clothing, transportation, health and personal care, education, and other items.
  • The average Canadian family now spends more of its income on taxes (42.4%) than it does on basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing combined (37.6%). By comparison, 33.5% of the average family’s income went to pay taxes in 1961 while 56.5% went to basic necessities.
  • In 2015, the average Canadian family earned an income of $80,593 and paid total taxes equaling $34,154 (42.4%). In 1961, the average family had an income of $5,000 and paid a total tax bill of $1,675 (33.5%).
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