The Canada comparison: a self-employed electrician versus a global multinational

A self-employed electrician in Ontario, with C$100,000 of net business profit in 2024, pays 28.3% in combined federal tax, provincial tax and CPP. The six largest global technology companies averaged an effective corporate income tax rate of about 18.8% over the decade to 2024, so the electrician pays about 1.5 times their rate, and against a global online retailer's roughly 13.5% it is about 2.1 times. There is also a cleaner same-country comparison: the exact same C$100,000 of profit earned inside a Canadian-controlled private corporation is taxed at about 12.2%, about 2.3 times less than the sole trader pays. Here is the arithmetic, line by line, and the two caveats that keep it honest.

The small business: the working

Self-employed, Ontario, 2024, net business profit of C$100,000. No RRSP contributions, no business credits, no reliefs beyond the basic personal amounts modelled. This is the baseline an unplanned sole trader actually faces. CPP is paid in full (both employer and employee halves) because a self-employed person is both.

Against a global multinational

The thesis of this whole site is the small business set against the global giant, so that is the headline comparison here too. Over the decade to 2024, the six largest technology companies paid an average global effective corporate income tax rate of 18.8% on $2.5 trillion of profit, according to the Fair Tax Foundation's 2025 report. The Ontario electrician's 28.3% is about 1.5 times that average. Against a global online retailer's 13.5% worldwide effective rate, from its own filed 2024 accounts, the electrician pays about 2.1 times as much.

These are worldwide blended figures, not Canadian rates. The right framing is that a Canadian electrician pays 28.3%, while these companies report global rates of 18.8% and 13.5%. Not "they pay that in Canada." We do not have their Canadian country-by-country figures, and neither does anyone outside the tax authorities.

The cleaner same-country comparison: a CCPC

The multinational figures above are global, so they carry a scope caveat. Canada also offers something rarer, a clean like-for-like inside one country. The same C$100,000 of profit, earned inside a Canadian-controlled private corporation on its first C$500,000, is taxed at about 12.2%: 9% federal small-business rate plus 3.2% Ontario. That is a real, verified, legally available rate on the identical profit, in the same province, and the self-employed electrician cannot reach it. The sole trader pays about 2.3 times that rate. This is the cleanest comparison in the whole set, because there is no scope mismatch at all.

The comparison

Caveat A, the measure. The 28.3% all-in includes CPP, a social-security contribution on the person, while the multinational and CCPC rates are corporate income tax on the company only. The CCPC's 12.2% is an income-inside-the-company rate, and personal tax is triggered later when the owner draws salary or dividends, which raises the combined "integrated" rate. But the C$100,000 itself, on the way in, is taxed at 12.2% in the company and 28.3% for the sole trader. The corporation also legally defers and often permanently reduces tax through the small-business deduction, income splitting and the lifetime capital gains exemption, options the self-employed person does not have.

Caveat B, the scope. The 18.8% and 13.5% are global blended rates, never matched to Canada, exactly as on the United Kingdom and Australia pages. The CCPC comparison, by contrast, is matched on country and profit, which is why it is the cleanest in the set: the 12.2% is the Canadian CCPC rate, not a worldwide figure. We label which is which every time.

Why the electrician cannot get there

The gap is not effort. It is structure and scale. The tools that take a multinational's rate down to 18.8% or 13.5%, intellectual property held in low-tax jurisdictions and profit allocated across borders, only exist where there are subsidiaries in several countries to route between. Closer to home, incorporate and the first C$500,000 of profit meets a 12.2% rate, with deferral and splitting on top. Stay a sole trader, and every dollar runs through personal income tax and full CPP at 28.3%. Identical work, identical profit, more than double the rate, decided entirely by legal forms the system makes available to some and not others.

Key facts

• Ontario self-employed electrician, C$100,000 profit, 2024: federal C$14,208 + Ontario C$6,021 + CPP C$8,111 = C$28,340, an all-in rate of 28.3%.
• Against a global multinational: 28.3% is about 1.5 times the six biggest tech firms' 18.8% global ten-year average, and about 2.1 times a global online retailer's 13.5% worldwide rate. These are global blended figures, not Canadian rates.
• The cleaner same-country comparison: the same C$100,000 inside a CCPC is taxed at about 12.2% (9% federal + 3.2% Ontario) on the first C$500,000, so the sole trader pays about 2.3 times that rate, with no scope mismatch.
• CPP (C$8,111 in 2024) is the largest item; most comparisons omit it.
• The CCPC rate is income-inside-the-company; drawing the money out adds personal tax. We say so.