How long it would take to pay off your income tax upfront, according to a think tank

David Rotfleisch, founding lawyer at Taxpage.com, explains what 'Tax Freedom Day' means for Canadian taxpayers.

A public policy think tank is reminding Canadians that June 9 is “Tax Freedom Day,” which it says is the day of the year taxpayers would start working for themselves if they had paid all their taxes up front.

The symbolic date was popularized in Canada by The Fraser Institute, a right-wing think tank, which uses it annually to help Canadians visualize the number of calendar days of the year they would need to work to pay off their federal, provincial and municipal taxes before bringing home money for themselves.

David Rotfleisch is a founding lawyer at Taxpage.com, which specializes in tax law. He said visualizing the amount of time it takes to pay our yearly taxes will likely raise some questions about whether we’re getting value for our money.

“You have to remember that most federal governments expenses (and) expenditures are non-discretionary,” he told CTVNews.ca. “So, the government gets our taxes, and it immediately goes out in mandatory payments.”

He admits that the question of whether Canadians are getting their money’s worth can be interpreted as a political or philosophical question, though he points out that Canadians benefit from the services that are paid for with our taxes.

“We have a military that’s a federally expenditure,” he said. “We have police, which is a municipal expenditure. We have roads, we have airports, air traffic controlling, and all of these are of benefit to us. All of these are funded by our taxes.”

Rotfleisch said that Tax Freedom Day only reflects on fixed taxes that are paid to the federal, provincial and municipal governments, and not taxes like HST/GST, property taxes or government fees, like the ones you pay when you renew your passport, for example.

“So, any government service you consume costs you money, and then you’re paying in general to support government,” he said. “Hence, the concept of Freedom Day. This is when notionally, our mandatory tax payments are over, on average you can notionally pocket what you’re earning.”

According to the Fraser Institute, in 2026, the average Canadian family will earn $166,790 in income and pay an estimated $72,539 in total taxes – which amounts to 43.5 per cent.

“Tax Freedom Day helps put the total tax burden in perspective, and helps Canadians understand just how much of their money they pay in taxes every year,” Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute, said in a release.

“Canadians need to decide for themselves whether they are getting their money’s worth when it comes to how governments are spending their tax dollars.”