TORONTO, Jan. 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Despite promises that provincial personal income tax increases in 2012 and 2013 would be temporary, successive governments have kept them in place for a decade, according to a new report. study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, nonpartisan Canadian public policy think tank.
“The recent history of personal income tax rates in Ontario is that tax increases promised by governments would be temporary and ended up being permanent,” said Ben Eisen, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Broken Promises: The Persistence of High Personal and Corporate Income Taxes in Ontario.
Due to federal and provincial tax increases, Ontario now has the third highest combined federal/provincial-state tax rate in Canada or the United States, dropping from 46.41% in 2012 to 53, 53%. Combined with federal increases, Ontario’s top tax rate increased by 7.12 percentage points.
“Contrary to their repeated promises not to raise taxes, the Dalton McGuinty government has enacted tax increases that have increased the province’s top personal income tax rate, also promising that the increase was temporary and would be reversed later – neither he nor his successor, Prime Minister Wynne, held firm. commitment, just as the current Ontario government has taken no action,” Eisen said.
The current government has also failed to deliver on its promises to go beyond simply reversing previous tax increases and actually reducing the tax burden on Ontarians. When it ran for office in 2018, the Ford government promised to cut Ontario’s general corporate tax rate, but failed to deliver on that commitment.
“At the heart of the story of personal and corporate tax rates in Ontario is one of broken promises: governments keep promising to significantly reduce taxes for Ontarians, but their words have not been followed by effects,” Eisen commented.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Ben Eisen, Principal Investigator
Fraser Institute
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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and education organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal and links to a global network of think tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life of Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and widely communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choices on their well-being. To protect the independence of the Institute, it does not accept government grants or research contracts. Visit www.institutfraser.org.
