No, not everyone feels they pay too much tax. But the government still has work to do to convince us that the amount it charges us for public services is adequate.
Posted at 6:30 a.m.
Slightly more than half of Quebecers, or 53%, consider that their tax burden is too high.
Is it little, is it a lot? This is where it gets interesting. Because everything is relative in life.
The Research Chair in Taxation and Public Finance (CFFP) at the Université de Sherbrooke has been interested in these questions since 2005. Over the years, it has surveyed Quebecers on their perceptions of taxes on seven occasions. The results of its most recent analysis were released on Friday.
It shows that the rate of dissatisfaction with the tax bill has never been so low, if we exclude the atypical year that was 2020 due to the pandemic. That puts the 53% in perspective.
It is not easy to determine what changes the collective perception of the price we are charged for hospitals, roads, education and all the rest.
The authors agree that we cannot dissociate the results obtained from what is happening in the news, which “makes the analysis more complex”. The peak of dissatisfaction (70%), they point out, coincides with the Charbonneau commission and a rise in the QST. While the lowest rate (44%) was recorded in the spring of 2020, a time marked by a “very high level of government intervention”.
This year, the survey was conducted shortly after the announcement of a special benefit of $500 to offset the rising cost of living.
But when we take a step back, we can see that the general trend is downward. That the dissatisfied are fewer and fewer.
As if we became more aware that money does not fall from the sky to ensure the maintenance of all these services that we value.
Perhaps because we have heard a lot about the financial advantages of the Quebec model in recent years. I am thinking in particular of the CPEs that Ottawa wants to set up in the other provinces. Perhaps, too, the big corruption scandals that fueled the feeling that our public funds were mismanaged have already gone far in our memory…
There is also the effect of the pandemic. We all know that the aid measures (to individuals and businesses), vaccines and care have cost the government a lot of money. In Quebec, the bill amounted to 24 billion, including 15 billion for health.
After the comparison with ourselves over time, it is interesting to see what is the perception of the inhabitants of other countries whose tax burden is similar to ours. This is the case of Greece and the Netherlands.
Do they feel like their taxes are giving them value for their money? The answer is a big no for the Greeks and a resounding yes for the Dutch. “They are at the extremes! “, summarizes the holder of the CFFP, Luc Godbout.
In other words, the extent of the tax burden in no way allows us to make predictions about taxpayers’ perception.
Moreover, in some countries where taxes are very high, such as Denmark and Belgium, the feeling of paying a fair bill based on the services received is very high. A high tax burden is not necessarily synonymous with frustration, summarizes Luc Godbout. All is relative…
Thus, even if Quebecers are repeatedly told that they are the most taxed in North America, their level of satisfaction is higher than that observed in most of the 25 OECD countries. But it is lower than in Canada and the United States.
The CFFP study teaches us another astonishing fact: a majority of Quebecers would be ready to give even more money to the government!
The question was as follows: would you be in favor of an increase in the QST if the revenues were used for specific purposes?
For health, 70% of women answer yes, which compares to 61% for men. The researchers call the difference “significant”. Ditto in education, since 62% of women would accept a QST increase to improve services, compared to 54% of men.
What if we increased the sales tax to reduce personal income tax? Nearly 6 out of 10 people would be in favor of it. This time, the gap is marked between workers (60%) and retirees (49%).
Co-author, economist and tax researcher Antoine Genest-Grégoire qualifies these high percentages in favor of a tax increase as a “paradox” in the context where more than half of Quebecers already find their tax burden too high. But it is a paradox that speaks volumes about the values of our distinct society.