Canada: two governments, one payslip
A Canadian payslip is assembled by two tax authorities at once. Federal tax runs 14% to 33%, and on top of it your province charges its own rates on the same income, with its own brackets and its own basic personal amount. Ontario then adds two things the bracket table never shows: a surtax of 20% and 36% charged on your tax rather than your income, and a health premium of up to $900.
The part almost every calculator gets wrong is the pension contribution. CPP is 5.95% of earnings between $3,500 and $74,600, but it is split for tax purposes: the base part is a credit against tax, while the enhanced 1% part, and all of CPP2 (4% between $74,600 and $85,000), are a deduction from income. Getting that split wrong throws the answer out by several hundred dollars.
Quebec is a system of its own: QPP instead of CPP, an extra parental insurance premium, a lower EI rate, and a 16.5% abatement that cuts your federal tax because Quebec collects its own income tax.
Worked example: $60,000 in Ontario, 2026
Taxable income: $60,000 less the $565 enhanced CPP contribution = $59,435.
Federal tax after the basic personal amount, CPP, EI and Canada employment credits:
$5,338.29.
Ontario tax of $2,382.20 plus the $600 health premium = $2,982.20.
CPP $3,361.75 and EI $978.00.
Take-home: $47,339.75 a year, $3,944.98 a month.