Meta engineer flags 53% tax

A Meta machine-learning engineer’s post about Canadian taxes turned a familiar recruiting argument into a concrete number: C$700,000 of salary, he wrote on X, can put a staff engineer into a roughly 53% marginal tax bracket in Canada. The claim matches published Ontario tax tables for high earners. It does not mean half of a C$700,000 salary is automatically paid in tax, but it does mean each additional dollar in the top band can be taxed at just over 53% in Ontario. For engineers comparing Canadian and U.S. offers, that distinction matters because marginal and average tax rates are not the same. ### Does the 53% number check out? Ontario’s combined top marginal rate on ordinary income is 53.53% in 2026 for taxable income above C$258,482, according to TaxTips.ca’s combined federal and provincial tables. EY Canada’s 2026 personal tax calculator also lists a marginal tax rate output for each province and says its calculations reflect known rates as of Jan. 15, 2026. A C$700,000 salary is far above that threshold, so the top slice of employment income would be taxed at that rate in Ontario. (taxtips.ca) TaxTips.ca’s table also notes that the published marginal rates do not include the Ontario Health Premium, which can increase the effective burden further depending on income level. ### Does that mean someone loses half of a C$700,000 salary? A marginal rate of 53.53% applies only to income above the top threshold, not to the entire salary. (taxtips.ca) Canada’s federal and Ontario systems are progressive, so lower portions of income are taxed at lower rates before the top bracket applies. EY Canada says its calculator reports both tax payable and after-tax income, which is the cleaner way to compare offers. (taxtips.ca) The distinction is the core correction to many viral tax posts: a top marginal rate describes the tax on the next dollar earned, while the average tax rate describes the share of total income paid across all brackets. ### Why does this come up in tech hiring? (taxtips.ca) Meta was named in the post because senior engineering pay is often discussed in cross-border terms, with candidates weighing Canadian compensation against U.S. packages. The tax point in that comparison is straightforward: two offers with similar headline pay can produce materially different after-tax income once federal, provincial or state, and local rules are applied. That is an inference drawn from the tax tables and calculator outputs, not a statement by Meta. (eytaxcalculators.com) Ontario’s top ordinary-income rate is one of the concrete figures candidates can plug into that comparison. At 53.53%, the top marginal bite on an additional C$700,000-dollar salary increment would be about C$374,710 if the entire amount were taxed at that rate, but Canada’s bracket system means the actual total tax bill on a C$700,000 salary would be lower than that simplified illustration. (eytaxcalculators.com) ### What should candidates compare instead of the headline rate? EY Canada’s 2026 calculator lets users enter taxable income and province to estimate tax payable, after-tax income, average tax rate, and marginal tax rate. That makes it more useful for offer comparisons than a single top-bracket number alone. TaxTips.ca publishes the underlying 2025 and 2026 federal and provincial brackets, including Ontario’s thresholds and rates for ordinary income, capital gains, and dividends. (taxtips.ca) For a staff engineer comparing Toronto with a U.S. city, the practical next step is to model the specific mix of salary, bonus, and equity under the relevant jurisdiction rather than rely on a single viral percentage. (eytaxcalculators.com) ### Where can readers verify the claim themselves? EY Canada’s 2026 personal tax calculator is live now and says it reflects rates known as of Jan. 15, 2026. TaxTips.ca’s Ontario and Canada-wide tables also list the 2026 thresholds, including the 53.53% top marginal rate above C$258,482 in Ontario. (eytaxcalculators.com) (taxtips.ca)