Provincial Income Tax Rates Compared 2025

Canada has dramatically different tax burdens depending on which province you live in. Here’s a comprehensive comparison for 2025.

All figures below are for the 2025 tax year and come from the CRA’s 2025 Form 428 provincial and territorial tax calculations (and, for Quebec, from Revenu Québec). Federal rates for 2025 are 14.5% on the first $57,375 — a blended rate, because the bottom federal rate dropped from 15% to 14% on 1 July 2025 — rising to 33% on income above $253,414.

Top Marginal Rates by Province (Combined Federal + Provincial)

*Ontario’s headline 13.16% is not the whole story. Ontario adds a surtax of 20% of Ontario tax above $5,710, plus a further 36% above $7,307 — a combined 56% uplift that raises the effective top provincial rate to 20.53%. Ontario’s true combined top rate is therefore 53.53%, not the 46.16% the headline rates imply.

†Quebec residents receive a 16.5% federal abatement because Quebec collects its own income tax, so the federal 33% top rate effectively becomes 27.56% for them: 25.75% + 27.56% = 53.31%.

Note: the federal top rate of 33% only begins at $253,414. Where a province’s top bracket starts below that — Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, PEI, New Brunswick, Northwest Territories and Nunavut — the combined rate in the table is only actually reached at $253,414.

Prince Edward Island no longer levies a surtax: it was removed from the province’s tax calculation, and the 2025 Form PE428 has no surtax line. PEI instead moved to a five-bracket system topping out at 19%.

Mid-Range Income Comparison ($80,000)

At $80,000 of employment income, here are the combined federal plus provincial/territorial income tax figures. These assume a single person with no deductions or credits beyond the basic personal amount, and they exclude CPP/QPP contributions, EI premiums and the Ontario Health Premium.

*Ontario also charges the Ontario Health Premium, which is $750 at this income. Including it, Ontario’s total is $15,877, or 19.9% — which moves Ontario from fourth-lowest to sixth.

†Quebec’s federal figure already reflects the 16.5% federal abatement.

The spread between the cheapest and most expensive place to earn $80,000 is about $6,200 a year — meaningful, but far smaller than the spread at the top of the income scale.

Why Do Rates Vary So Much?

1. Provincial spending priorities: provinces with higher healthcare and education spending per capita tend to need higher rates
2. Resource revenues: Alberta’s oil and gas royalties reduce its reliance on income tax
3. Tax base and demographics: the Atlantic provinces have smaller, older populations and narrower tax bases, and all four sit in the top five for income tax at $80,000 — harmonising their sales tax into the HST did not translate into lower income tax rates
4. Separate systems: Quebec runs its own entire tax administration, which is why its residents get the federal abatement

Planning Implications

• High earners can save tens of thousands per year by residing in a lower-tax province — the top combined rate ranges from 44.5% in Nunavut to 54.8% in Newfoundland and Labrador, a 10.3-point spread
• Corporate structure can sometimes let business owners split income across provinces
• Moving changes your province of residence for tax purposes on December 31

Key Insight: It’s Not Just the Rate

Look at the Basic Personal Amount (BPA) — the income that’s effectively tax-free at the provincial level:

*Yukon uses the federal basic personal amount, so it grinds down from $16,129 to $14,538 as net income rises from $177,882 to $253,414.

†Manitoba’s BPA is clawed back in a straight line to $0 between $200,000 and $400,000 of net income — the only province where the basic personal amount disappears entirely.

Alberta’s BPA is by far the most generous, and combined with the 8% bracket on the first $60,000 of income introduced for the 2025 tax year, it shelters low-income Albertans better than any other province. But the BPA advantage does not carry all the way up: Alberta’s second bracket jumps to 10% at $60,000, and at $80,000 Nunavut, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Ontario and Yukon all charge less income tax than Alberta does. The basic personal amount tells you where tax starts, not what you pay once you are well past it.