Nearly three-quarters of Canadians (74%) believe the average family is overtaxed by federal, provincial, and local governments, says a new report published by the Fraser Institute..“There is a large discrepancy between what the average family actually pays in total taxes versus what Canadians believe the average family should be paying,” said Jake Fuss, associate director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute and author of Polling Canadians on Taxes for the Average Family..The findings are based on a Leger poll in early 2023 that surveyed 1,554 Canadians about their opinions on the tax burdens imposed on families. Here, 52% said the average family should pay 25% or less of their income to local, provincial, and the federal governments.. Tax chartTax chart .The average Canadian family paid 45.2% of its income in taxes in 2022. According to the poll, 80% of Canadians support the average family paying 40% or less of their income in total taxes to all levels of government. Only 6% polled believed the tax burden should represent more than 40% of the average family’s income..Nearly half (44%) of Canadians surveyed believe they’re getting poor or very poor value from the services they receive from governments. Another 16% of Canadians believe they are getting good or great value and 28% believe they get satisfactory value..“It’s clear that many Canadian families don’t believe they’re getting value from their taxes,” said Fuss..“Tax relief should be a much higher policy priority given the overwhelming view that average Canadian families are overtaxed coupled with the weak support for the value Canadians receive in government-provided services.”.Canada’s largest province hasn’t helped, the Fraser Institute has found. Their study of annual per-person program spending by Ontario premiers from 1965 to 2021 found the highest single year of spending on record was under Premier Doug Ford in 2020. However, without COVID-19 spending, it was still less than spending under Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals..The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. .To protect the institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research.
