Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks with vendors and exhibitors during a visit to the Calgary Stampede on July 12. Photo by Brent Calver/Postmedia files

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I’m a fun guy to go out for dinner with; just ask my wife or our friends. Before long, I’ll steer the conversation toward tax policy. I know, I know, I’m a blast at parties.

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A common topic is how much the so-called rich actually pay in income tax. The reaction is almost always the same when I share the statistics: genuine surprise. Why? Because many people assume wealthy Canadians pay little tax thanks to endless loopholes and rate preferences. They simply aren’t contributing their fair share.

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But the data doesn’t support that shallow narrative.

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The top 20 per cent of income-earning families pay 65.3 per cent of all personal income taxes in Canada and 58.3 per cent of all taxes once you add sales, property and every other levy governments collect, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual study on tax progressivity. The bottom 20 per cent pay 0.7 per cent of personal income taxes and 1.7 per cent of total taxes.

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Statistics Canada’s effective tax rate data tell a similar story. The top one per cent of income earners in 2023 reported 10.1 per cent of total income, but paid 22.1 per cent of federal and provincial income taxes. The top 0.01 per cent — roughly 3,000 people — reported 1.1 per cent of total income, but paid three per cent of total taxes.

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The bottom 50 per cent paid five per cent of total taxes, clear evidence that redistribution is a central pillar of Canadian tax policy.

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Consumption taxes have a similar narrative.

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The highest-income quintile spent, on average, $123,447 on goods and services in 2023, more than triple the $40,080 spent by the lowest quintile, according to Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending. GST and HST apply to most consumer purchases, and the exemptions — basic groceries, most financial services, resale housing — apply the same way regardless of income. The wealthy are paying substantially more consumption taxes simply because they buy more.

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Then there are taxes aimed almost exclusively at higher-income Canadians. The federal luxury tax, introduced in 2022 on certain boats, aircraft and automobiles, was partly repealed in the last budget after the government acknowledged it was inefficient, costly to administer and harmful to Canadian industries. The same reasoning applies to automobiles, and the tax should be repealed entirely.

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And let’s not forget what happens when someone leaves the country. Canada imposes a departure tax, so individuals who cease Canadian residency are generally deemed to dispose of their assets at fair market value immediately before departure, triggering tax on accrued gains subject to certain exceptions and deferrals. Similar rules apply at death.

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The above evidence settles one debate: Canada’s highest-income earners already shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden. The more important question is what happens when governments continue trying to extract even more revenue from a relatively small group of taxpayers.

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The evidence on targeting the rich for more is well documented: the United Kingdom hiked its top rate to 50 per cent in 2010 and it was projected to raise 2.5 billion pounds; it raised, at most, one billion pounds. The same happened in Canada in 2016 when the Justin Trudeau government increased the top personal tax rate by four percentage points. The instinct to vilify success rather than celebrate it reflects the same short-sightedness.