Top 20% of income-earning families in Ontario pay 58% of all taxes in the province

TORONTO, Sept. 23, 2025 /CNW/ - The top 20 per cent of income-earning families in Ontario pay more than half (58 per cent) of total taxes in the province including personal income, sales and property taxes, according to a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent non-partisan Canadian think-tank.

"Despite the common misperception that top earners don't pay their 'fair share' of taxes, the reality is these households pay a disproportionately large share of the total tax bill," said Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Measuring Provincial Tax Progressivity in Canada.

The key to understanding "fairness" is comparing the share of income earned by one group compared to their share of total taxes paid. By this objective measure, the top 20 per cent of income-earning families is the only group to pay a disproportionate share of the total tax burden compared to their share of income earned.

Specifically, this study measures tax progressivity in the four most populous provinces in 2025: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. The study finds that in all four provinces, the top 20 per cent of income-earning families pay more than half of the total taxes collected by all levels of government in their respective province: 57.0 per cent in British Columbia, 57.1 per cent in Alberta, 58.0 per cent in Ontario, and 55.5 per cent in Quebec.

"Simply put, top earning families in Canada's four largest provinces pay the majority of taxes levied by all levels of government," Fuss said.

Conversely, the bottom 20 percent of income-earning families in each province pay no more than 2.0 percent of total taxes: 1.7 percent in British Columbia, 1.6 percent in Alberta, 2.0 percent in Ontario, and 2.0 percent in Quebec.

"The assertion that the top 20 per cent of earners in Canada are not paying their fair share is simply not supported by the evidence," Fuss said.

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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Halifax and Montreal 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 www.fraserinstitute.org

SOURCE The Fraser Institute

MEDIA CONTACT: Jake Fuss, Director, Fiscal Studies, Fraser Institute; Grady Munro, Policy Analyst, Fiscal Studies, Fraser Institute; To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact: Drue MacPherson, 604-688-0221 ext. 721, [email protected]