A new report from the Fraser Institute shows that Canadians are spending more money on taxes than food, clothing and shelter. The institute’s scholar in residence on economic policy Charles Lamman says the study looked at all taxes the average household pays.
“We summed them all up and the total is $32,000 for the average family, going to some level of government going to tax,” says Lamman, “it works out to 42 percent of their average income.”
Lamman says that compares to the 36.1 percent of their income on food, shelter and clothing. He says these numbers are based on 52 years of data collected. He says the most damaging type of tax is income tax because it taxes activities that we want more of.