Governments at both federal and provincial level are making considerable financial efforts to develop and modify tax measures aimed to improve the incentive to work. At the same time, there is a real willingness in the population to work more if the perceived financial gain is sufficient. In this study, the authors document the evolution of work disincentives in the Quebec population from 2017 to 2023, highlighting in particular the significant heterogeneity in the evolution of the disincentives faced by taxpayers. Using an original survey designed specifically for this study, they compare reality with perceptions in order to measure the population's degree of understanding of work incentives and specific tax measures.

The authors show that the population's understanding of the impact of tax measures on work incentives is very poor. For example, respondents have considerable difficulty in incorporating the notion of recovery tax aid into their assessment of the incentive to work. As a result, specific tax measures are unlikely to have an effect on behaviour.

The existence of a large number of poorly understood tax measures deprives governments of considerable revenue and forces them to pass this cost on to all taxpayers through a tax system with higher rates. In this context, the authors suggest that governments need to improve the way they explain new tax measures. At least, indicators of awareness and perception of the measures should be periodically collected and incorporated into the evaluation of tax measures. The government should also carry out a periodic review of the effectiveness of existing measures and study the possibility of putting a stop to the number of tax measures in order to force a government that wants to add a measure to eliminate an existing one.