Alberta income tax.

Alberta’s new 8% bracket

For most of its modern history Alberta was the only province in Canada without progressive provincial brackets at all — a single flat 10% rate on every dollar of taxable income. That is over. Alberta now applies 8% to the first $61,200 of taxable income, and 10% only above it.

The first bracket is also the widest in the country: $61,200 of income at a single rate, where BC has already moved through two brackets and Quebec is into its second. Above that the structure is nearly flat — 10% all the way to $154,259.

The largest basic personal amount in Canada

Alberta’s basic personal amount for 2026 is $22,769. No other province is close: Saskatchewan is next at about $20,381, Quebec at $18,952, BC at $13,216 and Ontario at $12,989. An Albertan earning $22,000 pays no provincial income tax whatsoever.

The size of that amount is doing most of the work in Alberta’s low-tax reputation. The credit it generates is worth about $1,166 more than Ontario’s equivalent, which is why an Albertan on $25,000 pays roughly $178 of provincial income tax where an Ontarian pays about $607.

Worth being straight about, because it is widely misunderstood: Alberta is not the cheapest province for provincial income tax at every income. Alberta’s 8% and 10% rates are higher than Ontario’s 5.05% and 9.15% and British Columbia’s 5.6% and 7.7%, so between roughly $40,000 and $117,000 an Albertan pays slightly more provincial income tax than an Ontarian on the same income. Alberta pulls ahead below about $30,000, where the basic personal amount dominates, and decisively above about $117,000, where Ontario’s surtax begins to bite and Alberta’s rate is still 10%.

Alberta claws back a quarter of its own credits

Alberta is the only jurisdiction in Canada whose payroll formula contains a credit reduction. In CRA’s T4127 it is factor K5P: where the value of an employee’s Alberta basic personal credit plus their CPP and EI credits exceeds $4,896, Alberta takes back 25% of the excess.

Nobody else does this. Ontario, BC and Quebec all allow their basic credits in full. It is a small effect in dollar terms but it is genuinely Alberta-specific, and it is one of the reasons an Alberta estimate built by swapping a rate into a generic calculator comes out slightly too low.

No provincial sales tax, no surtax, no health premium

Alberta charges 5% GST and nothing on top — the only province with no PST or HST. It also has no surtax — Ontario is the only jurisdiction in Canada with one — and no health premium charged to individuals. The Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan is publicly funded and Alberta’s premium regulation currently sets the individual monthly premium at $0.00.

None of that changes the income tax figure the calculator above produces, but it does change what the resulting take-home pay buys, and it is the honest reason Alberta’s overall tax burden is lower than its bracket table alone would suggest.

Federal tax is the same everywhere

Only the provincial half of the bill changes with your address. The 2026 federal brackets below apply identically in every province and territory, and the federal basic personal amount is $16,452, clawed back on a straight line to $14,829 between $181,440 and $258,482 of net income.

Sources

Every rate, threshold and ceiling on this page is taken from the official publication linked below. Last verified 2 September 2026.

• Government of Alberta — Personal income tax rates and credits
• CRA T4127 — Payroll Deductions Formulas — the governing source for every withholding figure on this page. Two 2026 editions exist: the 122nd, effective 1 January 2026, and the 123rd, effective 1 July 2026 and currently in force. This page uses full-year annual rates, not the prorated mid-year catch-up rates the 123rd edition publishes for July–December withholding.
• CRA — Federal income tax rates and brackets
• CRA T4127 — federal basic personal amount and its phase-out — $16,452 falling to $14,829 between $181,440 and $258,482