New Year, New Tax Measures: What to expect for 2026
Liberals roll out a personal support worker tax credit to run from 2026 to 2030.
The coming year will see some changes to existing tax measures, the abandonment of others and some help for personal support workers. But overall changes to the taxes individuals pay will be minor in 2026.
Daniel Rogozynski, an accountant and professor at the University of Waterloo, says the changes impacting individuals in 2026 could best be described as “a snoozefest.”
“We were waiting for months for something that was going to be; ‘wow, that’s a big change, that really changes, you know, the game for Canadians versus Americans and the rest of the world in terms of competitiveness,” Rojozyski said.
“It just wasn’t there.”
He says the change Canadians are most likely to notice is the one percentage point reduction to the lowest marginal tax rate — taking it from 15 per cent to 14 per cent.
That measure was promised during the election campaign and first came into effect July 1, 2025, when taxes on the first $57,375 earned were only taxed at 14.5 per cent. (tax measures introduced in the middle of a tax year start at half the rate and then bump up to the full cut the following year).
Each year tax brackets increase to account for inflation, which means that beginning Jan. 1 the rate drops to 14 per cent on the first $58,523 someone earns in 2026.
When the measure was rolled out, Finance Canada projected maximum tax savings of $840 per couple with two incomes. In June Yves Giroux, the previous parliamentary budget officer, said a two-income couple with a child would only get about $750 in average savings in 2026.
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