The Fraser Institute has good news for you and your clients. As of tomorrow, June 28, you will now be working for yourselves.

According to the Vancouver-based institute’s annual Tax Freedom Day calculations, Canadians worked until Friday to pay the total tax bill imposed on them by all levels of government.

On an hourly basis, Canadians work until 12:54 pm each day (based on a nine-to-five work day) before they start keeping the money they earn. All money earned prior to Tax Freedom Day goes to one of three levels of government: federal, provincial, or local.

The bad news, the institute says, is the average Canadian family experienced a $1,263 increase in their total tax bill between 2002 and 2003. Increases in Canada and Quebec Pension Plan contribution rates, which will be fully phased in this year, continue to increase Canadians’ total tax bill. Nearly 40% of the total increase of the average tax bill was a result of increases in social security, pension, medical, and hospital taxes.

The institute said it calculates Tax Freedom Day “in order to provide a simple, easy reference point about the impact of the most complex and intrusive activity of government — its tax-collecting apparatus.”

The latest Tax Freedom Day was recorded in 2000, when it fell on July 2.