What were the tax brackets in Canada in 2003?

Federally, four: 16% on the first $32,183; 22% from $32,183 to $64,368; 26% from $64,368 to $104,648; 29% above $104,648. Each province and territory then applied its own scale on top, and your province of residence on 31 December 2003 decided which.

What was the highest tax rate in Canada in 2003?

The federal top rate was 29% above $104,648. Combined with the provincial top rate the highest was Newfoundland and Labrador at 47.02% and the lowest Alberta at 39%.

What were the Ontario tax brackets for 2003?

Three of them: 6.05%, 9.15%, 11.16%, the top one starting at $64,871. Ontario also charged a surtax on its own provincial tax that year, which is not in the CRA's rate table and therefore not on this page.

Can I use this to work out what I owed in 2003?

Not in full. The federal side is closer than it was — the brackets and the basic personal amount of $7,756 are both here — but the provincial credits, Ontario's surtax and the CPP and EI ceilings for 2003 are not, and your province's own basic personal amount is not either. Use this to check a rate or a threshold, not to produce a bill. For a real calculation use the 2026 calculator, which has every piece.

How much could you earn tax-free in 2003?

$7,756 federally — the same figure whatever you earned, since the amount was not means-tested until 2020. It is a non-refundable credit at 16% rather than a zero-rate band, which comes to the same thing on that first slice of income. Adding each province's own amount, the real threshold ran from $14,987 in Nova Scotia to $21,281 in Alberta.

Why is Quebec missing from the 2003 table?

Because the Canada Revenue Agency does not publish it. Quebec administers its own income tax, and the CRA's all-years table links to a Revenu Québec document rather than listing Quebec rates. This page covers twelve jurisdictions, which is what the CRA publishes, rather than presenting twelve as if it were all of Canada.

Did tax rates change in 2003?

Yes. The federal rates were unchanged. Provincially, Manitoba and Saskatchewan each changed a rate or a bracket count.

2003 tax year · federal + 12 jurisdictions · rates and personal amounts

Canada tax brackets, 2003

Four federal brackets in 2003, topping out at 29.0% above $104,648, and a different provincial scale in each of the twelve jurisdictions the CRA publishes. These are the rates as they applied to that year’s return — not a calculator, because brackets alone cannot produce a tax bill.

Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz QuinteroSources checked September 21, 2026Read off the 2003 federal Schedule 1 and each jurisdiction’s own Form 428 on 2026-09-21

The federal rates for 2003

Four brackets, applied in slices. The first slice of taxable income is taxed at the lowest rate, the next slice at the next, and so on. Reaching the top bracket never meant the whole income was taxed at the top rate.

16% — on the first $32,183

22% — from $32,183 to $64,368

26% — from $64,368 to $104,648

29% — on everything above $104,648

The top rate of 29% started at $104,648 that year. Everyone in Canada paid these rates, whichever province they lived in — the federal half of an income tax bill does not vary by province, only the provincial half does.

How much you could earn tax-free in 2003

In 2003 the federal basic personal amount was $7,756. That is the figure behind "how much can you earn before paying tax", and for federal tax the answer that year was exactly that: $7,756.

It works as a non-refundable credit at the lowest rate, not as a bracket taxed at zero. $7,756 at 16% is $1,241 of tax cancelled — and because the first bracket is also taxed at 16%, the credit exactly wipes out the tax on the first $7,756 of income. The arithmetic lands in the same place as a zero-rate band, which is why people describe it that way, but it is not one: it does not move the brackets above it and it does not change anyone's marginal rate.

Up $122 on 2002's $7,634, which is indexation rather than a decision.

One figure, the same for everyone. The means-testing of the basic personal amount — where the amount shrinks as income rises — did not arrive until 2020, so in 2003 a person earning $40,000 and a person earning $400,000 claimed the same $7,756.

Read off Form 5000-S1, Schedule 1, line 300.

10 of the twelve had an amount of their own on top of that, and for 2003 they are below. The rest were still computing their personal credits as a percentage of the federal total, so for those the figure above was the whole of it.

And the provincial amount, which is nothing like uniform

10 of the twelve had a basic personal amount of their own in 2003, and the gap between them is already wider than anything in the rate tables:

Alberta — $13,525. Federal and provincial together: $21,281.

Northwest Territories — $11,050. Federal and provincial together: $18,806.

Nunavut — $10,160. Federal and provincial together: $17,916.

British Columbia — $8,307. Federal and provincial together: $16,063.

Saskatchewan — $8,000. Federal and provincial together: $15,756.

Ontario — $7,817. Federal and provincial together: $15,573.

Manitoba — $7,634. Federal and provincial together: $15,390.

Prince Edward Island — $7,412. Federal and provincial together: $15,168.

Newfoundland and Labrador — $7,410. Federal and provincial together: $15,166.

Nova Scotia — $7,231. Federal and provincial together: $14,987.

Alberta exempted $6,294 more than Nova Scotia that year — more than twice as much, on the same federal salary. Stack each on the federal $7,756 and the amount you could earn before any income tax at all ran from $14,987 to $21,281, depending only on which side of a provincial boundary you slept on 31 December.

The other 2 had none, which is not the same as one this page could not find. New Brunswick, Yukon still worked their personal credits out as a percentage of line 335 of the federal Schedule 1 — the total of your federal amounts — applied at their own lowest rate. There was no provincial figure to claim, so there is none to publish.

Nova Scotia is worth a note for what it was about to become. In 2003 its amount was a flat $7,231, the lowest in the country. From 2018 it stops being a single figure: the province raises it to $11,481 and then claws it back at 6% of income above $25,000, back down to this same $7,231 by $75,000 — a claw-back aimed squarely at ordinary salaries.

Read off each province's own Form 428 for 2003, read from the PDF, on 2026-09-21.

And the provincial and territorial rates for 2003

Your province of residence on 31 December 2003 decided which of these applied — not where you worked, not where you were paid, and not where you lived in January.

Twelve jurisdictions, from the flattest to the steepest at the top:

Newfoundland and Labrador — 3 brackets, from 10.57% to 18.02% above $59,180. Combined with the federal top rate: 47.02%.

New Brunswick — 4 brackets, from 9.68% to 17.84% above $104,648. Combined with the federal top rate: 46.84%.

Manitoba — 3 brackets, from 10.9% to 17.4% above $65,000. Combined with the federal top rate: 46.4%.

Prince Edward Island — 3 brackets, from 9.8% to 16.7% above $61,509. Combined with the federal top rate: 45.7%.

Nova Scotia — 3 brackets, from 9.77% to 16.67% above $59,180. Combined with the federal top rate: 45.67%.

Saskatchewan — 3 brackets, from 11% to 15% above $100,000. Combined with the federal top rate: 44%.

British Columbia — 5 brackets, from 6.05% to 14.7% above $88,260. Combined with the federal top rate: 43.7%.

Northwest Territories — 4 brackets, from 7.2% to 13.05% above $104,648. Combined with the federal top rate: 42.05%.

Yukon — 4 brackets, from 7.04% to 12.76% above $104,648. Combined with the federal top rate: 41.76%.

Nunavut — 4 brackets, from 4% to 11.5% above $104,648. Combined with the federal top rate: 40.5%.

Ontario — 3 brackets, from 6.05% to 11.16% above $64,871. Combined with the federal top rate: 40.16%.

Alberta — 1 bracket, from 10% to 10% above $0. Combined with the federal top rate: 39%.

So the spread between the two ends of the country was 8.02% of every dollar at the top of the scale — Newfoundland and Labrador at 47.02% against Alberta at 39%.

And one of them was not a scale at all. Alberta charged a single flat 10% on every dollar of taxable income in 2003 — no brackets, no thresholds, the same rate on the first dollar as on the millionth. It was the only jurisdiction in Canada that did, and it stopped in 2015, when it replaced the flat rate with a five-bracket scale rising to 11.25%.

Quebec is not in that list either, and its absence is not an oversight. The Canada Revenue Agency does not publish Quebec's rates in this table; it links to a Revenu Québec document instead, because Quebec administers its own income tax. So the count runs three ways: twelve jurisdictions on this page, twelve that the CRA publishes, and thirteen that Canada actually has.

The 2003 tax tables in full, one jurisdiction at a time

Alberta, 2003 — 1 bracket:

10% — on everything above $0

British Columbia, 2003 — 5 brackets:

6.05% — on the first $31,653

9.15% — from $31,653 to $63,308

11.7% — from $63,308 to $72,685

13.7% — from $72,685 to $88,260

14.7% — on everything above $88,260

Manitoba, 2003 — 3 brackets:

10.9% — on the first $30,544

14.9% — from $30,544 to $65,000

17.4% — on everything above $65,000

New Brunswick, 2003 — 4 brackets:

9.68% — on the first $32,183

14.82% — from $32,183 to $64,368

16.52% — from $64,368 to $104,648

17.84% — on everything above $104,648

Newfoundland and Labrador, 2003 — 3 brackets:

10.57% — on the first $29,590

16.16% — from $29,590 to $59,180

18.02% — on everything above $59,180

Northwest Territories, 2003 — 4 brackets:

7.2% — on the first $32,183

9.9% — from $32,183 to $64,368

11.7% — from $64,368 to $104,648

13.05% — on everything above $104,648

Nova Scotia, 2003 — 3 brackets:

9.77% — on the first $29,590

14.95% — from $29,590 to $59,180

16.67% — on everything above $59,180

Nunavut, 2003 — 4 brackets:

4% — on the first $32,183

7% — from $32,183 to $64,368

9% — from $64,368 to $104,648

11.5% — on everything above $104,648

Ontario, 2003 — 3 brackets:

6.05% — on the first $32,435

9.15% — from $32,435 to $64,871

11.16% — on everything above $64,871

Prince Edward Island, 2003 — 3 brackets:

9.8% — on the first $30,754

13.8% — from $30,754 to $61,509

16.7% — on everything above $61,509

Saskatchewan, 2003 — 3 brackets:

11% — on the first $35,000

13% — from $35,000 to $100,000

15% — on everything above $100,000

Yukon, 2003 — 4 brackets:

7.04% — on the first $32,183

9.68% — from $32,183 to $64,368

11.44% — from $64,368 to $104,648

12.76% — on everything above $104,648

What changed between 2002 and 2003

Ottawa did not move. The federal rates in 2003 were the same 16%, 22%, 26%, 29% as in 2002. The thresholds rose with inflation — that happens every year and is not a policy decision — but no rate changed.

And 2 of the 12 provinces and territories on this page changed a rate, a bracket count or the whole system:

Manitoba — 15.4% became 14.9%.

Saskatchewan — 11.25% became 11.0%; 13.25% became 13.0%; 15.5% became 15.0%.

Thresholds are left out of that list on purpose. Almost every jurisdiction indexes its brackets to inflation, so almost every threshold moves every year, and a list of them would bury the handful of changes that were actually decisions.

What this page deliberately will not do

It will not work out what you owed in 2003, and the reason is worth more than a calculator would be.

A tax bill is not the brackets. It is the brackets minus the basic personal amount, minus the provincial credits, plus Ontario's surtax where it applies, alongside CPP and EI with their own ceilings — and every one of those figures was different in 2003 from what it is now. The CRA's rate table carries none of them.

So a calculator built on this page would take the one piece of 2003 that is published, pair it with 2026 values for everything else, and produce a number that looks authoritative and is wrong. That is a worse outcome than no number at all, and it is the commonest way historical tax pages mislead.

What the table is genuinely good for: checking a rate you half-remember, seeing which bracket a figure fell into, and comparing 2003 with the year before or after. For an actual figure, the 2026 calculator has every piece it needs — basic amounts, surtax, contributions and all.

And if you are reassessing a 2003 return, the authority is your own notice of assessment and the CRA, not this page or any other. 21 years on, the figures here are a reference, not a filing.

The years either side

The federal top rate across every year on this site, so you can see where 2003 sits:

2000 — 3 brackets, top rate 29% above $60,009.

2001 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $100,000.

2002 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $103,000.

2003 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $104,648 ← this page.

2004 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $113,804.

2005 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $115,739.

2006 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $118,285.

2007 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $120,887.

2008 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $123,184.

2009 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $126,264.

2010 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $127,021.

2011 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $128,800.

2012 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $132,406.

2013 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $135,054.

2014 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $136,270.

2015 — 4 brackets, top rate 29% above $138,586.

2016 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $200,000.

2017 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $202,800.

2018 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $205,842.

2019 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $210,371.

2020 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $214,368.

2021 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $216,511.

2022 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $221,708.

2023 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $235,675.

2024 — 5 brackets, top rate 33% above $246,752.

Read down that list and the federal top rate is 29% for sixteen straight years and 33% for the nine after it. The thresholds, meanwhile, moved every single year — the point at which the top rate begins rose from $60,009 in 2000 to $246,752 in 2024. Almost all of that is indexation doing its work rather than a government doing anything.

Next to this one: 2002 and 2004. And the current year, in full, at 2026 tax brackets.

Where the 2003 figures came from

CRA — All years tax rates and income brackets, federal and provincial or territorial, 2015 onward — read 2026-09-21. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/tax-rates-brackets/all-years.html

Every rate and threshold on this page was taken from that table and checked for internal consistency before publication: each bracket's ceiling has to be the next one's floor, rates have to rise, and the first bracket has to start at zero. Any table that failed those checks would not be here.

The basic personal amount comes from different documents again, because the CRA publishes it nowhere near the rate table:

CRA — Income Tax Folio S1-F4-C1, Basic Personal and Dependant Tax Credits, indexation amounts table (2015 and 2016) — read 2026-09-21. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/technical-information/income-tax/income-tax-folios-index/series-1-individuals/series-1-individuals-1/income-tax-folio-s1-f4-c1-basic-personal-dependant-tax-credits.html

CRA — Form 5000-S1, Schedule 1 Federal Tax, and each province's Form 428, for the 2013 and 2014 brackets and amounts, read from the PDFs in layout mode — read 2026-09-21. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/tax-packages-years.html

CRA — Form 5000-S1, Schedule 1 Federal Tax, line 300 (2017 and 2018 editions) — read 2026-09-21. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/5000-s1/5000-s1-18e.pdf

CRA — Form 5000-R, Income Tax and Benefit Return, line 30000 (2019 to 2022 editions) — read 2026-09-21. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/5000-r/5000-r-22e.pdf

CRA — Indexation adjustment for personal income tax and benefit amounts, non-refundable tax credits (2023 and 2024) — read 2026-09-21. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/frequently-asked-questions-individuals/adjustment-personal-income-tax-benefit-amounts.html

CRA — Form 428 for each province and territory, one per year (2015 to 2020), and T4032 Payroll Deductions Tables, previous-year editions (2021 to 2024) — read 2026-09-21. For 2003 the figures come from each province's own Form 428 for 2003, read from the PDF. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/tax-packages-years.html

And what this does not cover:

— Quebec is not here. The CRA does not publish Quebec rates in this table — it links to a Revenu Québec document instead — so these pages cover twelve jurisdictions rather than thirteen, and say so rather than quietly listing twelve and calling it Canada.

— No tax is calculated on these pages, and that is deliberate. The basic personal amount, Ontario's surtax, the provincial credits, CPP and EI all change from year to year as well, and none of them is in this table. A figure worked out from the brackets alone would be wrong, and confidently wrong is the worst kind.

— Rates and thresholds are as published for the tax year, not as they may later have been amended. Where a province legislated a change part-way through a year, the CRA table shows the rate that applied to the return for that year.

— For tax years before 2015 there is no single CRA table: the rates live inside each year's income tax package, one form per province per year. Those forms were downloaded and read individually — the federal Schedule 1 and every provincial Form 428 back to 2000 — and validated the same way as the later years. Two gaps survived that work and are named rather than filled: the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon have no 2000 or 2002 Form 428 on canada.ca and no copy in the Internet Archive, so those three jurisdictions are absent from those two years and the pages say which.

— In 2000 four provinces had no tax brackets at all. Alberta, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan still charged a percentage of the federal tax you had already calculated rather than setting rates of their own, so their rows in the 2000 table give that percentage instead of a scale. By 2001 all four had moved to rates of their own. This is a fact about the tax, not a hole in the data.

Where to go next

2002 tax bracketsThe year before the changes on this page.2004 tax bracketsRates moved that year.Every year from 2000 to 2024The whole decade the CRA publishes as a table.2026 tax bracketsThe current year, with the basic personal amounts and surtax these pages do not have.Canadian income tax calculatorFor an actual figure, on 2026 rules.

Questions

What were the tax brackets in Canada in 2003?: Federally, four: 16% on the first $32,183; 22% from $32,183 to $64,368; 26% from $64,368 to $104,648; 29% above $104,648. Each province and territory then applied its own scale on top, and your province of residence on 31 December 2003 decided which.
What was the highest tax rate in Canada in 2003?: The federal top rate was 29% above $104,648. Combined with the provincial top rate the highest was Newfoundland and Labrador at 47.02% and the lowest Alberta at 39%.
What were the Ontario tax brackets for 2003?: Three of them: 6.05%, 9.15%, 11.16%, the top one starting at $64,871. Ontario also charged a surtax on its own provincial tax that year, which is not in the CRA's rate table and therefore not on this page.
Can I use this to work out what I owed in 2003?: Not in full. The federal side is closer than it was — the brackets and the basic personal amount of $7,756 are both here — but the provincial credits, Ontario's surtax and the CPP and EI ceilings for 2003 are not, and your province's own basic personal amount is not either. Use this to check a rate or a threshold, not to produce a bill. For a real calculation use the 2026 calculator, which has every piece.
How much could you earn tax-free in 2003?: $7,756 federally — the same figure whatever you earned, since the amount was not means-tested until 2020. It is a non-refundable credit at 16% rather than a zero-rate band, which comes to the same thing on that first slice of income. Adding each province's own amount, the real threshold ran from $14,987 in Nova Scotia to $21,281 in Alberta.
Why is Quebec missing from the 2003 table?: Because the Canada Revenue Agency does not publish it. Quebec administers its own income tax, and the CRA's all-years table links to a Revenu Québec document rather than listing Quebec rates. This page covers twelve jurisdictions, which is what the CRA publishes, rather than presenting twelve as if it were all of Canada.
Did tax rates change in 2003?: Yes. The federal rates were unchanged. Provincially, Manitoba and Saskatchewan each changed a rate or a bracket count.