Monday has been declared Tax Freedom Day by the Fraser Institute — a calculation that critics have charged is seriously flawed.

The day designates the point when Canadians have paid their total tax bill from all levels of government and "begin working for themselves," the institute says.

Alberta has earliest 'Tax Freedom Day': June 6

The occasion fell on June 24 last year. The Fraser Institute said the latest appearance of the day was in 2000, when it came June 25.

Its Tax Freedom Day calculations have attracted critics who say the institute has merely come up with a gimmick to advance a politically loaded agenda.

The National Union of Provincial Government Employees, for instance, calls it "a corporate sham to undermine the value of the public sector and public services."  

Last year, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives published a study on Tax Freedom Day that said the calculation was seriously flawed because it underestimated a family's income, and based its results on average family income rather than median income.

”The concept of Tax Freedom Day is a gimmick designed to suggest that Canadians derive no benefit from the taxes they pay, when nothing could be further from the truth,” said the report's author, Neil Brooks.  

GST reduction cuts freedom-day total

The Fraser Institute, a conservative think-tank, said the reduction in the Goods and Services Tax from seven per cent to six per cent on July 1 has accounted for one day of the five-day change in Tax Freedom Day. In addition, many provincial governments reduced taxes in 2006.

The think-tank said the average Canadian family, with two or more individuals, earned $79,396 in income and paid a total of $36,650 in taxes in 2006.

The tax bills used to determine the tax freedom date include income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, profit taxes, health, social security and employment taxes, import duties, licence fees, taxes on the consumption of alcohol and tobacco, natural resource fees, fuel taxes, hospital taxes and other levies.

The institute said Alberta has the earliest Tax Freedom Day, June 6, while Quebec has the latest, June 27.

The Fraser Institute says it has been calculating the dates to monitor taxation levels since 1977.