When the federal government announced an increase in capital gains taxes in its recent budget, the hike was defended, in part, as a way to ensure the wealthiest Canadians pay their fair share.
But how exactly do we determine what a “fair share” is? Especially, as some data suggests, the wealthiest are already paying a larger share of the overall income tax burden.
While those tax changes may impact the very wealthiest, Fuss suggested that what is often overlooked is how much high income earners are actually paying in taxes.
Nocos referred to a recent Statistics Canada report showing that the wealthiest 20 per cent of Canadians account for more than two-thirds of the total net wealth.
As well, according to the data, the bottom 40 per cent of net income earners make up just under three per cent of total wealth.
This is a confusion between total dollars paid vs % of dollars paid. Sure, the top 20% pay the lion share of the total dollars in taxes, because they have the vast majority of dollars. If I as a normal Joe worker am paying 30% of my income in taxes I dont think it unfair to expect the wealthy to also pay at least that % regardless of what the total dollar amount is. There is a lower threshold to that though as there is a minimum amount that a person needs to survive. People close to that should pay a lower % as every dollar is worth more to them since they have so little (if any) left over after expenses. Giving them an extra $1000/year could be life changing. To the wealthy who pay $10M/year in taxes and still have $10M left over, changing the tax rate so they pay $11M/year and “only” have $9M left will change their lifestyle not one bit.