Taxation and the middle class

[tomh009]

Here's another novel idea, not adding and increasing taxes on society. This is a discussion for a completely different forum I know, but whenever I hear the answer to a MAJOR global crisis is just to tax - and hurt - the middle class even more (segment which pays the biggest proportion of their money in tax as it stands), I shake my head. We can do better than that.

This meme ("middle class pays the most taxes") probably has its roots in the US, where the tax system is considerably different than ours. Let's look at the Stats Canada data, which allows us to calculate average tax rates:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/...1110005501

• Bottom 50% of taxpayers: $17,200 average income, 4.6% average tax rate
  
• Bottom 90% of taxpayers: $35,400 average income, 11.9% average tax rate
  
  
• Median taxpayer (all taxpayers): $35,100 income, 7.7% average tax rate
  
• Median taxpayer (in top half): $79,500 income, 11.7% average tax rate
  
  
• Top 50% of taxpayers: $79,500 average income, 20.0% average tax rate
  
• Top 10% of taxpayers: $165,300 average income, 27.2% average tax rate
  
• Top 1% of taxpayers: $477,700 average income, 36.7% average tax rate
  
• Top 0.1% of taxpayers: $1,624,600 average income, 40.5% average tax rate
  

Non-progressive taxes (such as HST) adjust the picture somewhat but the reality is that in Canada the total taxation still remains progressive.

And, personally, I don't think our income tax rates are too high ...