OTTAWA — A new study says the incomes of Canada’s top one per cent grew at a faster pace than everyone else’s in 2017 — and, overall, they saw their taxes edge down.
Statistics Canada says in 2017 the average total income of all tax filers rose 2.5 per cent compared to the previous year, while those in the top one per cent saw average income growth of 8.5 per cent.
The report says the top 0.1 per cent took home 17.2 per cent more income, and people in the top 0.01 per cent, who made at least $2.7 million, saw their incomes rise 27.2 per cent — for the fourth-highest increase in 35 years.
The agency says as the top one per cent made more money, their effective tax rate declined to 30.9 per cent in 2017, down from 31.3 per cent the year before.
The decrease in taxes for the top earners was mostly due to lower provincial taxes, especially in Quebec.
The report says at the federal level, the top one per cent have been paying higher taxes since the Liberal government created a fifth tax bracket in 2016, which nudged the effective tax rate of top earners to 18.8 per cent from 18.4 per cent.
The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press
