Latest news with #JakeFuss
Cision Canada
3 days ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
Fraser Institute News Release: This Sunday, June 8, is Tax Freedom Day, when Canadians finally start working for themselves
VANCOUVER, BC, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ - This Sunday, June 8, Canadians will celebrate Tax Freedom Day, the day in the year when they start working for themselves and not government, finds a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. "If Canadians paid all their taxes up front, they would work the first 158 days of this year before bringing any money home for themselves and their families," said Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute. Tax Freedom Day measures the total annual tax burden imposed on Canadian families by federal, provincial, and municipal governments. In 2025, the average Canadian family (with two or more people) will pay $68,266 in total taxes. That's 43.1 per cent of its annual income ($158,533) going to income taxes, payroll taxes (including the Canada Pension Plan), health taxes, sales taxes (like the GST), property taxes, fuel taxes, "sin" taxes and more. Represented as days on the calendar, the total tax burden comprises more than five months of income—from January 1 to June 7. On June 8th—Tax Freedom Day—Canadians finally start working for themselves, and not government. But Canadians should also be worried about the nearly $90 billion in deficits the federal and provincial governments are forecasting this year, because they will have substantial tax implications in future years. To better illustrate this point, the study also calculates a Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day—the day of the year when the average Canadian finally would finally start working for themselves if governments paid for all of this year's spending with taxes collected this year. In 2025, the Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day won't arrive until June 21. "Tax Freedom Day helps put the total tax burden in perspective, and helps Canadians understand just how much of their money they pay in taxes every year," Fuss said. "Canadians need to decide for themselves whether they are getting their money's worth when it comes to how governments are spending their tax dollars." Tax Freedom Day for each province varies according to the extent of the provincially and locally levied tax burden. 2025 Provincial Tax Freedom Days The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit SOURCE The Fraser Institute
Toronto Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: Tax Freedom Day is Sunday, June 8, when Canadians finally start working for themselves: report
Sunday is Tax Freedom Day this year, according to the Fraser Institute, signifying the day when Canadians stop working to pay taxes levied by all levels of government. Photo by Postmedia Network files Tax Freedom Day — when Canadians stop working for the government in order to pay their taxes and start working for themselves — will arrive on Sunday, June 8 this year, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account 'If Canadians paid all their taxes up front, they would work the first 158 days of this year before bringing any money home for themselves and their families,' said Jake Fuss, the Fraser Institute's director of fiscal studies. Using the example of an average Canadian family with two or more members earning $158,533 annually, the study says they will pay an estimated $68,266 in total taxes or 43.1% of their annual income. Families and unattached individuals with an income of $120,135 annually will pay $50,218 in total taxes, or 41.8% of their income, according to the annual survey. Federal taxes account for 58% of the total tax bill, provincial taxes 36% and municipal taxes 6%. Canadians can calculate their Tax Freedom Day using the Fraser Institute's personal tax freedom calculator at . Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The annual survey by the fiscally conservative think tank also says that given projected federal and provincial deficits this year totalling almost $90 billion, what it describes as Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day will be delayed by almost two weeks until June 21, if governments were obliged to cover current expenditures with current taxation. 'Today's deficits must one day be paid for by taxes,' the study says. 'Deficits should therefore be considered as deferred taxation.' Taxes used to compute Tax Freedom Day imposed by the federal, provincial and municipal governments include income taxes, payroll taxes, health taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, profit taxes, excise taxes, alcohol and tobacco taxes, fuel taxes, carbon taxes, motor vehicle licence fees, import duties, natural resource fees and other levies. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. They pay for public services including health care, public education, social welfare programs, national defence, policing, firefighting, waste collection, road construction and repair and fund entitlement programs such as employment insurance, Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. According to the survey, 'Tax Freedom Day helps put the total tax burden in perspective and helps Canadians understand just how much of their money they pay in taxes every year. 'It is important to note that Tax Freedom Day is not intended to measure the benefits Canadians receive from governments in return for their taxes. Rather it looks at the price that is 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. Those are questions only each of us can answer for ourselves.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Tax Freedom Day arrives one day earlier this year than in 2024 when it fell on June 9, based on the expectation that total tax revenues forecasted by the federal, provincial and municipal governments this year will increase at a slower rate than the incomes of Canadians. The latest Tax Freedom Day occurred in 2000 when it fell on June 27, almost two months after the earliest Tax Freedom Day of May 3 in 1961. The study says the precise Tax Freedom Day for Canadians depends on which province they live in. This year, Tax Freedom Day came earliest in Manitoba (May 17) and will arrive latest in Quebec (June 21). Tax Freedom Day in the other provinces in ascending order were May 31 for Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia; June 2 in Prince Edward Island; June 4 in New Brunswick; June 7 in Ontario; June 10 in Nova Scotia and June 19 in Newfoundland and Labrador. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The Canadian tax system is complex and no single number can give us a complete idea of who pays how much,' the study concludes. 'That said, Tax Freedom Day is the most comprehensive and easily understood indicator of the overall tax bill of the average Canadian family.' Finally, it should be noted that calculating the total tax levels Canadians pay has long been a controversial issue and critics of how the Fraser Institute calculates Tax Freedom Day say its numbers are incorrect and misleading, These criticisms include that the use of average family incomes instead of median incomes inflates the amount of money average Canadians pay in taxes; that it includes taxes paid by businesses as if they were being paid by families and that it fails to calculate the benefits families receive from paying taxes such as hospitals, schools and other public infrastructure they could not otherwise afford. A more accurate calculation of Tax Freedom Day, they say, would be weeks or months earlier than the Fraser Institute claims. Celebrity Toronto & GTA Toronto Blue Jays Canada Olympics
Epoch Times
24-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Canada Had Largest Debt Increase Among G7 Countries Over Last Decade: Fraser Institute
Canada's total government debt has grown substantially since 2014 and has outpaced that of nearly every other advanced country around the world, according to a new study from the Fraser Institute. The 'Simply put, over the past decade, the size of government in Canada and the overall government debt burden have grown faster than nearly every other advanced economy in the world,' says the report, authored by the Fraser Institute's policy analyst Grady Munro and Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies. 'This has translated to a deterioration in the state of Canada's finances relative to comparable countries, and likely means lower economic growth and reduced living standards for Canadians.' Total government spending in Canada increased from 38.4 percent of the country's economy in 2014 to 44.7 percent in 2024. This makes Canada the 17th highest for total government expenditures out of the 40 advanced countries analyzed. 'Canada's 6.34 percentage point increase in government spending relative to the economy was the second-largest increase out of all 40 advanced economies, and the largest in the G7,' the study says. 'Only Estonia experienced a greater increase in the size of government during this period at 6.66 percentage points.' Related Stories 1/25/2024 3/26/2025 Munro and Fuss's study indicated that Canada had the largest increase in both spending and debt among the G7 countries. Germany had the second-highest spending increase among the G7, with a 5 percentage point increase, followed by a 2.9 percentage point increase for the United Kingdom, 2.3 for the United States, and 1 percentage point for Japan. France and Italy both saw decreased spending during the past decade, by 1.2 percentage points and 0.2 percentage points respectively. Canada's debt burden jumped by 25.23 percentage points since 2014, the third-highest increase in debt among the 40 economies and the largest increase in debt among G7 countries. Although Canada's debt burden increased significantly, 20 of the 40 countries decreased their total debt burden, for an average 2.79 percentage point decrease among the 40 countries over the last decade. France's debt burden was second highest among the G7 countries, with a 17 percentage point increase, followed by the United States with 16.4 percentage points, the United Kingdom with 14.1, Japan with 3.4, and Italy with 0.5. Germany was the only G7 country to reduce its debt burden, with a 10.6 percentage point decrease. The authors said the Canadian government relied heavily on borrowing money to fund its expansion and spending increase, which in turn increased federal and provincial government debt. The Canadian government's gross debt increased to 110.8 percent of GDP in 2024, from 85.5 percent in 2014, indicating that Canada now has the seventh-highest indebtedness ranking out of the 40 countries analyzed, and the fifth highest among the G7 countries. 'Canada likely suffers lower economic growth than it otherwise would have with a lower debt burden,' the study says. 'This problem will only worsen if debt continues to grow relative to the size of the economy.' Many countries saw a spike in debt burden during the pandemic in 2020 as governments borrowed money to fund pandemic-related programs while the economy was in recession. However, Canada borrowed the most relative to the size of its economy, Munro and Fuss said. In 2020 alone, Canada's debt burden increased by 27.86 percentage points. ' An increasing government debt burden corresponds to higher interest payments for taxpayers, less money for key services, and higher taxes for the future generations of Canadians, Munro said in a 'Taxpayers ultimately pay for government debt in the form of interest payments, which divert money away from key services, and future generations of Canadians could face higher taxes to pay for today's borrowing,' Munro said.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: Housing will become affordable only if incomes grow faster
By Jake Fuss and Austin Thompson In a recent media scrum, former Vancouver mayor and new federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson was asked: 'Should home prices go down?' His response: 'No, I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable. We need to be delivering more affordable housing.' That answer raises a followup question: what exactly does the Carney government mean when it promises 'affordable housing'? Rising house prices are nothing new. The sticker price for the average Canadian home typically rises, barring periods like the 2008-09 global financial crisis. And house prices aren't expected to fall anytime soon; forecasts point to continued growth. For homebuyers, however, what counts is not whether prices rise or not but whether they rise faster than incomes. By that measure, housing has become much less affordable in recent years. Consider the decade Minister Robertson was mayor: 2008-18. As the price of a typical single- or semi-detached Vancouver home rose from $690,000 to $1.98 million — by 187 per cent — the after-tax income of a typical Vancouver family rose just 15 per cent. Today, the typical single- or semi-detached home in Vancouver costs $2.38 million. Vancouver's housing market is in many ways unique, but price increases reflect a national trend: home prices have risen sharply even as income growth has stagnated, largely because immigration-fuelled population growth has generated housing demand that continues to far exceed new housing construction. Of course, housing can become more 'affordable' even as home prices rise so long as Canadians' after-tax incomes grow even faster. After-tax wage growth exceeded house price increases in the late 1980s, for example. Unfortunately, this seems unlikely to happen in the 2020s. As house prices have soared in recent years, wage growth has stagnated. In 2022, the latest year for which the data are available, the typical worker in our highest-wage province (Alberta) earned less than the typical worker in low-wage U.S. states like Mississippi and West Virginia. And from 2014 to 2024, Canada's real per capita GDP, an indicator of income and living standards, grew a mere 2.0 per cent compared to 19.6 per cent in the United States. In a recent analysis, economist Mike Moffatt estimated that if Canadian wages grew at the average rate of the past two decades and home prices didn't increase at all, it would still take 20 years to return to housing affordability levels of 2005. And of course, much could go wrong. If wage growth disappoints or mortgage rates or house prices rise, then the long march towards housing affordability may never end, which is awful news for young people looking to start a family. The federal government wants to double the rate of homebuilding in a decade. Is that realistic? Canada currently lacks the savings and investment required to fund that level of building. Nor, with tepid growth of our construction workforce, do we have the manpower to double output. And as always, local opposition to rapid housing development may prove hard to overcome. But even if somehow Canada did marshal the required resources and political capital, the end result, according to Minister Robertson, would only be to 'make sure the market is stable.' For many Canadians, 'stable' at today's prices means unaffordable — unless incomes rise. Clearly, housing supply is only half the battle. To achieve housing affordability on any reasonable timeline, the government needs to help facilitate not just a major expansion in homebuilding but also substantial growth in Canadian incomes — something the Trudeau government failed to do. The key is investment: to expand the housing supply, to grow the economy and to boost wages. In a capital-scarce economy such as Canada's, these goals may compete with one another. So governments need to adopt policies that attract investment, such as streamlining regulation and reforming capital gains taxes. Also, if rising incomes are to translate into improved affordability Canadians must keep more of what they earn. That will be difficult if increases in federal spending generate a higher tax burden. Ottawa must also craft immigration and residency policies that stop population growth from overwhelming housing supply and further increasing prices. A roadmap for addressing Canada's housing crisis Canadian home sales drop almost 10% from last year in return to 'quiet market' Canadians should think about housing affordability, not just in terms of housing supply but as part of a broader economic challenge where success depends on growing the economy, increasing saving and investment, and limiting how much governments take in taxes. Only a comprehensive strategy, centred on broad-based growth, will make the dream of homeownership a reality for future generations of Canadians. Jake Fuss and Austin Thompson are analysts at the Fraser Institute. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Cision Canada
15-05-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Fraser Institute News Research: Canada had third-largest increase in total government debt (relative to the economy) among 40 high-income countries
VANCOUVER, May 15, 2025 /CNW/ - Since 2014, Canada's total government debt—including federal, provincial and local governments—has exploded, finds a new study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. "Over the last decade, the growth of Canada's government debt burden has outpaced virtually every other advanced country and contributed to a marked deterioration in the state of government finances," said Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of The Deterioration of Canada's Finances Internationally. How did this happen? From 2014 to 2024, total government spending in Canada increased from 38.4 per cent of the economy to 44.7 per cent—the second-largest increase in government spending among 40 advanced countries (behind only Estonia) and the largest increase among G7 countries. Federal and provincial governments in Canada borrowed money to fund this substantial spending increase. As a result, during that same 10-year period, Canada's total government debt increased from 85.5 per cent of the Canadian economy to 110.8 per cent—the third-largest increase among 40 advanced countries and the highest increase in the G7. Consequently, among 40 advanced countries, Canada's total government debt increased from 14 th highest to 7 th highest over the decade. "Taxpayers ultimately pay for government debt in the form of interest payments, which divert money away from key services, and future generations of Canadians could face higher taxes to pay for today's borrowing," said Grady Munro, policy analyst at the Fraser Institute and study co-author. "If governments across Canada want to stop adding to their debt burdens, they must better control their spending," Fuss said. The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit SOURCE The Fraser Institute
