Total Tax Contribution

The Total Tax Rate is a measure of the total tax burden companies are subject to. On average, the sixty-three participants have a Total Tax Rate of 33.4%.

Survey participants made a Total Tax Contribution of $40.6bn consisting of $19.0bn in taxes borne and $21.6bn in taxes collected, and another $5.7bn in other payments to government. This underlines the importance of these companies to Canadian public finances

Sixty-three companies made a significant contribution to federal revenues. Of over 1 million3 tax paying employer businesses in Canada in 2012, sixty-three contributed 17% ($6.0 billion) of total federal corporate income tax revenue.

Three levels of government are the largest beneficiaries of the value distributed2 by the survey participants.

Compliance costs impose a burden on survey participants. On average, the sixty-three companies spent $4.5 million and employed twenty-two full time employees to comply with Canadian taxes.

Federal taxes are responsible for 57% of the Total Tax Contribution of the companies surveyed. In total, this federal tax revenue was collected on 18 different taxes, representing 34% of the total number of taxes paid by participants. At the provincial level, 37% of the Total Tax Contribution was collected on 30 different taxes, representing 58% of the total number of taxes paid by participants. This means that the federal government collects more revenue from fewer taxes than provincial governments.

Corporate income tax is not the only tax cost for the survey participants. For every $1 of corporate income tax paid, the survey participants paid a further $0.94 of other business taxes, and an additional $0.59 in other payments to government. For every $1 of corporate income tax paid by the participants, there is another $2.21 in taxes collected.

Sixty-three companies in the Canadian Council of Chief Executives provided data on their Total Tax Contribution, showing strong support for the survey.

Survey participants are an important source of well paid jobs in Canada. They provided employment to 759,276 people and paid an average wage of $64,781. They also contributed an average of $22,180 in employment taxes per employee.