Tax Facts 12

David Robinson is an associate professor of economics at Laurentian
University.

Books are no longer the technology of choice for the kind of information
in this annual handbook; Tax Facts 12 was a fossil even before it
reached me. It deals with taxes in the year 2000.

Like the previous volumes, Tax Facts 12 contains useful and detailed
descriptions of the tax system. Its most dramatic element is the Fraser
Institute’s annual “Tax Freedom Day” calculation. Tax Freedom Day
is like Groundhog Day for conservative economists. Before that date,
Canadians haven’t earned enough to pay all their taxes. After that day
they can imagine themselves liberated from their feudal bondage.
According to the Institute’s Web site, Tax Freedom Day fell on July 5
in 1999, on July 2 in 2000, and on June 26 in 2001.

In 2001 the Fraser Institute launched a new measure, Government Freedom
Day. It takes the cost of complying with government regulation into
account. According to the new annual calculation, Canadians don’t
start working for themselves until August 20.

The Fraser Institute is Canada’s most effective right-wing think
tank, and it continues to make a genuine contribution to the Canadian
policy debate.