Guide · Tax year 2026
Comparing job offers in different provinces
Federal tax, the pension plan and employment insurance are close to identical across the country. Provincial income tax is not, and Quebec is a different system rather than a different set of rates.
The same salary in every jurisdiction
Below is $100,000 of employment income, run through the 2026 rules for each province and territory, assuming the basic personal claim and nothing else.
| Jurisdiction | Take-home | Provincial tax | Total tax | Marginal rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nunavut | $76,654 | $4,275 | $17,577 | 27.5% |
| British Columbia | $75,373 | $5,556 | $18,857 | 28.2% |
| Northwest Territories | $75,204 | $5,724 | $19,026 | 29.1% |
| Yukon | $74,998 | $5,930 | $19,232 | 29.5% |
| Alberta | $74,459 | $6,470 | $19,772 | 30.5% |
| Ontario | $74,207 | $6,722 | $20,024 | 31.5% |
| Saskatchewan | $72,288 | $8,641 | $21,942 | 33.0% |
| Manitoba | $71,445 | $9,484 | $22,785 | 33.3% |
| New Brunswick | $71,214 | $9,714 | $23,016 | 34.5% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | $70,603 | $10,326 | $23,627 | 36.3% |
| Prince Edward Island | $69,789 | $11,140 | $24,441 | 37.1% |
| Quebec | $69,585 | $13,140 | $24,194 | 36.1% |
| Nova Scotia | $68,867 | $12,062 | $25,363 | 38.0% |
The full width of the country, Nunavut at the top to Nova Scotia at the bottom, is $7,786.83 a year, or 7.8% of gross. That is a genuine amount of money. But the ends of that range are rarely the two places anyone is actually choosing between, and the pairs of provinces most often weighed against each other are much closer together. Alberta and Ontario differ by $251.81 a year at this salary. Alberta charges lower rates on a much larger basic personal amount, and Ontario claws most of that back through a surtax and a health premium the rate table does not show.
The order by take-home is also not the order by income tax. Quebec pays $247.33 less income tax at this salary than Prince Edward Island and still keeps $204.15 less of it, because the Quebec Pension Plan takes a higher rate and the parental insurance premium is charged on top of employment insurance. A comparison that looks only at income tax rates gets that backwards.
What actually differs
- Rates and thresholds. The obvious one. Alberta starts at 8% on its first bracket, Quebec at 14%.
- Basic personal amounts. These range widely. Alberta shields $22,769 of income from provincial tax; Ontario shields $12,989. Manitoba phases its amount out entirely at high incomes, and Yukon simply adopts the federal amount including the federal phase-out.
- Extra levies. Ontario charges a surtax on tax payable, which lifts its effective provincial rate well above its bracket rate, and a separate health premium on top. British Columbia and Ontario both run low-income tax reductions that phase out.
- Quebec, which is a different system. It collects its own income tax, runs the Quebec Pension Plan at 6.30% instead of 5.95%, pays a reduced employment insurance rate of 1.30% with a parental insurance premium on top, grants a deduction for workers rather than the federal employment credit, and gives residents an abatement of 16.5% of basic federal tax. It also allows no provincial credit for pension or insurance contributions, which is the single largest item pushing a Quebec take-home figure down.
Which province taxes you
Your province of residence on 31 December decides which provincial tax you pay for that year, not the province your employer is in. Someone living in Gatineau and working in Ottawa is taxed by Quebec. Someone who moves from Toronto to Calgary in November is taxed by Alberta for the whole year. Your employer withholds based on the province of your place of employment, so a mismatch between the two shows up on your return rather than on your pay stub.
What the tax comparison does not tell you
The payroll arithmetic here is exact within its assumptions, and it is a minority of the answer. The things that usually decide it are outside it:
- Housing. Almost always larger than the tax difference, often by an order of magnitude. A $7,786.83 tax advantage disappears against a few hundred dollars a month of rent.
- Sales tax. The combined rate on what you buy varies by province, and Alberta charges no provincial sales tax at all. It applies to spending rather than to income, so it is not in any figure on this site.
- Childcare, car insurance and utilities. All set provincially or regionally, all capable of dwarfing an income tax gap.
- Moving costs and the timing of the move. Real, one-off, and easy to leave out of a spreadsheet.
For the cost side, Live In covers what living in a given place actually costs. This site stops at what you are paid.
A workable method
- Convert both offers to annual gross, including any reliable bonus.
- Run each through the comparison tool, which computes both jurisdictions in full rather than applying a rate difference.
- Subtract the housing cost you would actually pay in each place.
- Add the value of anything attached to one offer and not the other: employer pension matching, health coverage, paid leave.
- Only then look at the tax difference, which by that point is usually the smallest term in the sum.
Related
- Marginal versus average
- Gross pay versus net pay
- Hourly versus salary
- Compare two provinces
- Every province and territory
- All guides
Sources
- Current year tax rates and income brackets (2026) · Canada Revenue Agency · checked
- CPP contribution rates, maximums and exemptions, 2026 · Canada Revenue Agency · checked
- Contributions to the Québec Pension Plan (QPP), 2026 · Retraite Québec · checked
- Canada Employment Insurance Commission sets the 2026 Employment Insurance premium rate · Employment and Social Development Canada · checked
- Maximum Insurable Earnings and the Québec Parental Insurance Plan Premium Rate · Revenu Québec · checked
- T4032 Payroll Deductions Tables, January 2026 · Canada Revenue Agency · checked
- Budget 2026 tax changes: personal income tax rate and tax reduction credit · Province of British Columbia · checked
- Personal Income Tax: rates, brackets and provincial non-refundable credits · Government of Newfoundland and Labrador · checked
- TP-1015.F-V (2026-01), Formulas to Calculate Source Deductions and Contributions · Revenu Québec · checked
Reviewed 2026-08-18