Canadians Celebrate Tax Freedom Day on June 15, 2022

In 2022, the average Canadian family will earn $129,589 in income and pay an estimated $58,567 in total taxes (45.2%).
If the average Canadian family had to pay its taxes up front, it would have worked until June 14 to pay the total tax bill imposed on it by all three levels of government (federal, provincial, and local).
This means that Tax Freedom Day, the day in the year when the average Canadian family has earned enough money to pay the taxes imposed on it, falls on June 15.
Tax Freedom Day in 2022 comes four days later than in 2021, when it fell on June 11. This change is due to the expectation that the total tax revenue forecasted by Canadian governments will increase faster than the incomes of Canadians.
Tax Freedom Day for each province varies according to the extent of the provincially levied tax burden. The earliest provincial Tax Freedom Day falls on June 4 in Manitoba, while the latest falls on July 1 in Quebec.
Canadians are right to be thinking about the tax implications of the $86.0 billion in projected federal and provincial government deficits in 2022. For this reason, we calculated a Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day, the day on which average Canadians would start working for themselves if governments were obliged to cover current expenditures with current taxation. In 2022, the Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day arrives on July 2.

Milagros Palacios
Director, Addington Centre for Measurement, Fraser Institute

Jake Fuss
Associate Director, Fiscal Studies, Fraser Institute