Calls to "eat the rich" continue to dominate political debate in Canada, but a new Fraser Institute study suggests the country's highest-income earners are already footing the majority of the tax bill.

According to Measuring Progressivity in Canada's Tax System, 2026, released Thursday, the top 20 per cent of Canadian income-earning families pay 58.3 per cent of all taxes collected by federal, provincial and local governments. They also pay 65.3 percent of all personal income taxes.

This is Rob Ashton, an NDP leadership candidate. He screams to the crowd to “eat the damn rich”
Totally normal behavior, there’s nothing unhinged about this guy. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/IyPP3QSEaJ

— Ryan Gerritsen🇨🇦🇳🇱 (@ryangerritsen) March 29, 2026

By comparison, the bottom 20 percent of income-earning families pay just 0.7 percent of personal income taxes and 1.7 percent of all taxes.

Go Ad Free

The study, authored by Fraser Institute researchers Jake Fuss and Nathaniel Li, challenges the common political claim that higher-income Canadians are not paying their fair share.

"There is a common misperception in Canada that top income earners do not pay their share of taxes," the authors write, noting that Canada's tax system is already highly progressive, with tax burdens increasing as income rises.

The report also warns that further tax hikes on higher earners may not produce the windfall governments expect. The authors argue that taxpayers often change their behaviour in response to higher tax rates by engaging in tax planning, avoidance or other legal means of reducing their taxable income, leaving governments with less additional revenue than projected.

Beyond the revenue question, the Fraser Institute says higher taxes also make Canada less competitive internationally, particularly compared to the United States. According to the report, increasing taxes on top earners makes Canada a less attractive destination for highly skilled professionals, including doctors, scientists, engineers, managers and software developers.

The findings come as politicians on the left continue to advocate for higher taxes on wealthier Canadians as a way to fund expanding government programs. But if the goal is simply to make the wealthy pay more, the Fraser Institute's latest figures suggest they already do.

The report concludes that Canada's tax system already places a disproportionate share of the country's tax burden on higher-income families, with the top fifth of earners contributing well over half of all tax revenues while the bottom fifth contributes less than two per cent.