Upper income pay bigger tax share because they earn much more, CCPA report.

OTTAWA -- "Despite recent reports to the contrary, Canada's high-income earners do not pay a disproportionately large share of personal income tax." said Prof. Neil Brooks of Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto in a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report, The Share of Income Tax Paid by the Rich: A StatsCan report, Tax Incidence in Canada shows that 10% of the income earners pay 52% of all income taxes. The study showed that the share of federal income taxes paid by the top 10% increased from 46% in 1990 to 52.6% in 2002.

This report stirred considerable interest in Canada's press. Much journalistic comment suggested that the most affluent are treated unfairly.

Prof. Brooks takes a close look at the numbers in Statistics Canada's study and finds these figures both misleading and incomplete in assessing the fairness of the tax system.

Brooks points out, however, that this increase is not a result of the tax system becoming more progressive. Instead, the main reason for the increase was because the share of earned income going to the most affluent Canadians increased by 12.6% over that same period, while the share going to the bottom 50% of tax-fliers declined.