Canadians start working for themselves this Monday, June 19, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual Tax Freedom Day calculations.

That’s five days earlier than last year, when it fell on June 24.

Tax Freedom Day, calculated by the conservative think tank since 1977, is supposedly marks the day when Canadians have paid up the share of their incomes to all levels of government in taxes and start working for themselves.

Tax cuts by the federal government – notably the drop in the GST rate to 6% from 7% – and the provinces are the reason for the five-day improvement in this year’s date, the institute said in a news release.

The institutes’s calculations include income, property and sales taxes, as well as profit taxes, health, social security and employment levies, import duties, licence fees, taxes on the consumption of alcohol and tobacco, natural resource fees, fuel taxes and hospital taxes.