The country’s richest are earning more but paying less in tax as a share of the total, according to new figures published Monday.
Individuals on the very top rung of Canada’s economic ladder had a median annual income of $293,300 in 2011, according to Statistics Canada, up from a recent low of $278,700 seen during the downturn in 2009.
To be a member of Canada’s one-per-cent club, you’d need a yearly salary of $209,600 – the entry-level threshold, according to Statscan.
The rise in compensation didn’t correspond to a greater share of taxes being paid by the exclusive group however, with the country’s richest contributing a post-recession low of 20.8 per cent in income taxes to federal and provincial governments. In contrast, in 2007, the group contributed 23.3 percent.
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Still, a declining share in income taxes does line up with a declining share of total national income.
The share of national income pocketed by the very top income earners has risen steadily in Canada since the early 1980s, reaching a high of more than 12 per cent in 2006.
That figure shrank to 10.6 per cent in 2010 and stayed there in 2011, according to Monday’s report which is based on tax filings and is the most recent data on top income levels published by Statscan.
“Top income shares fell in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and were relatively stable in 2010 and 2011,” Statscan said.
As for what passed for entry into a lower income brackets, yearly compensation of $108,300 puts one in the top five per cent, while 10 per cent of wage earners make $84,100 or more.
Forty percent of Canadians earn between roughly $84,000 and $30,000, Statscan says.
“If one made less than $29,700, one would be counted as in the bottom half of taxfilers,” the report said.
There were 258,465 1-per-centers in Canada in 2011, according to the country’s main statistical agency, up from 246,070 in 2007.
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