I’m giving the CRA an extra $1 million this year. Here’s why

Posted on April 30, 2026 in Governance Debates

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TheStar.com – Business/Opinion
April 30, 2026.   By Emma Davis Contributor

This tax season, I’m giving the CRA an extra $1,000,000.

What kind of crazy person would do such a thing? I’m not crazy, but I’ve become rich, maybe even crazy-rich. I’m using my wealth, and the unearned platform it brings, to kick-start a new conversation about taxing the ultra-rich in Canada to build a sustainable and equitable future.

As they say, the only certainties in life are death and taxes. But for Canada’s uber-rich, there is no certainty that you’ll pay your fair share.

I haven’t always been wealthy.

I grew up in a family that worried about money and I know how it feels to stress about paying taxes every April. Working- and middle-class Canadians, and even moderately wealthy people, are doing their part to pay for the libraries, hospitals, courts, and other public institutions that make a functioning democracy possible.

But since my family became wealthy, I’ve seen how the tax code gives people like us a sweetheart deal. Our income comes from investments, which are taxed at half the rate of employment income, and can even be borrowed against to let us pick and choose if and when we declare any income at all. Meanwhile, working Canadians are dutifully paying taxes every April, and definitely not getting a 50 per cent off coupon.

Even when income is earned traditionally, our tax brackets fail to capture it at very high levels. At the bottom of the income scale, they recognize that the less you make, the less you should pay, but the inverse isn’t true — above $260,000, everyone is taxed the same. Someone making $300k is well-off, but might legitimately balk at a higher tax bill.

If you’re lucky enough to be making millions every year, paying higher taxes simply won’t impact your quality of life, which is why I’m putting my million dollars where my mouth is.

The fact that we can afford it is just one reason why the most privileged should pay more, not less.

Wealthy Canadians also rely on public investment to build their wealth. We personally take advantage of education, health care, and other public infrastructure, but we also depend indirectly on a stable, healthy, and educated workforce and consumer base that drives the success of our businesses and investments. Those of us who have benefitted most should reinvest accordingly.

Finally, Canada faces urgent collective challenges: housing affordability, child care shortages, and the climate crisis among others. Watching my neighbours make impossible choices between groceries and rent while my wealth grows, it’s clear that something is broken. Fixing it requires collective action funded by fair taxation.

I’m not the only one on this side of the wealth line who feels this way.

Patriotic Millionaires recently commissioned new polling that found among Canadians with more than $1 million in assets (not including their homes), 71 per cent believe extreme wealth concentration is a threat to democracy, 62 per cent believe government leaders should do more to address it, and 65 per cent believe that governments should raise taxes on the very wealthy.

The stakes are high.

A very small group of extremely wealthy families own most of our national and local media outlets and wield disproportionate political influence. This unchecked and outsized influence threatens democracies and erodes people’s faith in them.

Do I think my $1 million is going to fix any of this? Of course not.

I’ve paid an appropriate amount this year, but individual actions cannot solve entrenched structural problems. Only an effective and ethical tax code, mandatory and universally applied, scales enough to have a real impact. And it’s the best tool we have for allocating funds democratically and accountably.

Extreme wealth inequality is not inevitable. It’s the result of policy choices, and we can choose differently. The solutions are clear: Raising taxes for ultra-high income earners, increasing the capital gains inclusion rates, and wealth taxes for those with ultra-high net worth.

These changes will slow the growth of wealth inequality, help restore people’s faith in democracy by demonstrating the government is not beholden to a narrow set of wealthy stakeholders, and ensure there is funding to reinvest in the essential public services that keep our economy and society thriving.

We’ve been conditioned to see taxation as a burden, but we can reframe this. Let’s celebrate a mechanism that allows us to collectively build a society that works for everyone. This year, I proudly paid the extra tax voluntarily.

Next year, I hope the government makes me.

Emma Davis is an ultra-high-net-worth Canadian, B.C. resident, and board member of Patriotic Millionaires Canada.

Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events.

https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/im-giving-the-cra-an-extra-1-million-this-year-crazy-right-not-so-and-heres-why/article_666fa65d-644b-4b4b-85bf-f05150a88984.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a07&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_35131

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