Fraser Institute says average Canadian family spent $34,154 on taxes last year

VANCOUVER – The Fraser Institute calculates that the average Canadian family paid $34,154 in taxes of all sort last year, including “hidden” business taxes that are passed along in the price of goods and services purchased.

The Vancouver-based think-tank estimates that the average bill for income taxes collected by governments was $10,616 in 2015.

The second-biggest category was payroll and health taxes, at $7,160, followed by sales taxes at $4,973 and property taxes at $3,832.

The other categories include taxes on profits, liquor or tobacco, fuel, natural resources and import duties — totalling $7,573.

The study’s authors conclude that visible and hidden taxes would have been equal to 42.4 per cent of the cash income for an average Canadian family in 2015, estimated at $80,593.

By comparison, the study estimates the average Canadian family spent $30,293 on housing, food and clothing last year — about 37.6 per cent of the family’s total cash income.

The Fraser Institute uses its own “Canadian consumer tax index” to track the tax bill paid by a family with “average income.”

“The objective is not to trace the tax experience of a particular family, but rather to plot the experience of a family that was average in each year,” the 11-page report says.

“The ‘consumer’ in question is the taxpaying family, which can be thought of as consuming government services.”