As a 'middle-class' Quebecer (wow, I went from 'way below the poverty line' to 'middle class' in five years), I belong to the most over-taxed group in North America. Yet, I don't have access to a family doctor and the roads in my area are poorly kept. I keep on wondering what I'm paying for, then I remember. Oh, right, all the people on welfare. Anyway.
I just finished preparing my file for my accountant so she can do up my tax report for the year. There were some encouraging changes this year--a whopping 16$ profit on my investments (up from 1$ the year before and .03$ the year before that) and a decrease in 200$ on the amount of interest paid on my student loan (meaning that I'm eating up more principle).
That said, I have a long way to go to recover from my raise a year and a half ago. I jumped a tax bracket and saw my take home pay decrease by about 50$ a month. My accountant and I calculated that I lost close to 5,000$ a year in income and tax deductions because of this raise. Meanwhile, the government was making almost 10,000$ more from me.
This past year, I went back to school, so I'll get a nice deduction for my tuition fees, as I will every year from now on until I finish my certificate (for which I'm paying cash, no more student loans for me, thank you very much, even if it takes forever to finish). I also plan to start buying less on the 'open market' as I like to call it, relying on barter, transactions between individuals, and buying from the States to avoid paying sales tax. Enough is enough!!!
Someone living in a national-socialist state such as Quebec should be seeing value for taxes paid, instead of being worried about her health for lack of doctors and staggering under the weight of student loans.
When I start my own country (my retirement plan), my citizens will receive an itemized list of what, exactly, their taxes paid for and they will be allowed to challenge this distribution.
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