Canadians spend more on taxes than on food, clothes and housing, study finds

Article by Michael Babad, The Globe and Mail, August 12, 2014

“We spend more on the government than we do on our necessities, a new study suggests.

Indeed, the Fraser Institute said today, most people probably think their top expense is housing, but in fact it’s tax.

The average family, according to the group, brought in $77,381 in 2013, paying out 41.8 per cent of that in total tax, and 36.1 per cent on necessities such as food, clothes and housing.

Compare that to 1961, when the numbers were $5,000, 33.5 per cent and 56.5 per cent, respectively.

The Fraser Institute calculates that total taxes for the average family have surged 1,832 per cent since 1962, compared to 1,375 per cent for shelter, 620 per cent for clothes and 546 per cent for food.

It’s not the first time that the group has said this in its ongoing look at taxes, and it points out that the total tax outlay has increased at a much faster pace than that for basic necessities, at the same time far outstripping inflation. Having said that, tax as a percentage of cash income has declined since the late 1990s, as has that for basic necessities since the early 2000s.

The Fraser Institute tracks everything from income, payroll, health and sales taxes to those for fuel and autos.

“Over the past five decades, the total tax bill grew much faster than the cost of basic necessities, so now taxes eat up more income than any other single family expense,” Charles Lammam, who specializes in economic policy for the Fraser Institute, said in the study.”

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