If you make less than that, which is actually just under 98 hours of work per month at Alberta's minimum wage (yes, it's $8.80 now), congratulations, you don't have to pay federal taxes*!
Anyway, someone was asking me tax brackets this year, and I didn't know for sure, so I checked them out:
<$10,320 - None
$40,726 - 15%
$81,452 - 22%
$126,264 - 26%
>$126,264 - 29%
*and Alberta prov. taxes are easy: it's just 10% of federally taxable income. So at this amount, you also wouldn't have to pay provincial taxes. Every dollar you make is your own. Also, if you made $12,384, you'd get to take home exactly $10,320 after taxes, which would mean that you worked 234.5 hours for free (which is, of course $2,064, or the difference between $10,320 and $21,384). Obviously, this assumes no deductions nor other (official) incomes and a minimum wage of $8.80. This is a simple example of tax bracket realizations and what monitoring your income versus deductions can do. Because in this simple (and poor, ha!) case, nobody wants to work 264 hours for free, especially when they otherwise only make minimum wage.**
**this kind of thing happens when I'm bored after 6 hours at a library. Luckily I just received the
electric-letter from Rollzero, so I can go read that instead.
Observed: