When you look at the amount of tax you pay throughout the year, then when it comes tax time and you find out you still owe more, about the only thing you think about is the frustration of having to put out more money.
It may be of some comfort to take a moment to realize that you are really paying two bills here. You are paying your federal tax bill and your provincial tax bill. Now look at these two entities separately.
What are your federal tax dollars doing for you?
These dollars are spent across the country to provide many different services that we often don’t give second thought to as we don’t use them directly. One example, is our defence and international security. Most of us consider Canada to be a secure and non threatened country, and we assume that should there be some type of security issue then our neighbor the USA, would simply come to our rescue. We all know that we in order to remain secure we must accept that some of our tax dollars are going to this cause.
Something that we are perhaps more aware of because it affects our personal future is the social security program by way of pensions that we should have access to depending on our personal circumstances. These are the old age security pensions and the Canada pension plans. Now it is true that we pay into the CPP aside from our regular tax dollars, but some of the income tax dollars has to go to top it up.
Finally another area of great importance is our basically still free health care system.
These are just some of the areas where your Federal Tax dollars go. It is a little difficult to accept the federal tax dollar budget when you see that some provinces may be getting more than yours, yet you may be feeling the crunch in some of the services the Federal budget provides.
What are your provincial tax dollars doing for you ?
When expenditures are a little closer to home and are more likely to afford you benefits that you directly use it is easier to put money out for these. Your provincial dollars are what helps to keep your infrastructure in good shape. Now it is true that there are a lot of areas of our province that could do with some fixing up, but at the same time nobody wants their taxes increased to cover the costs.
The biggest contention about having to pay taxes when you really give it some thought is not that you have to pay for all these services, but whether or not your money is being spent wisely. The only way you can ensure this is to make sure you know your basic politics and vote accordingly to your opinion during election time. The other thing you can do to make your taxes a little less painful is to be sure they are done right and you are getting all the applicable tax breaks. This you can accomplish by using an experienced tax accountant like Sam Seidman, at TorontoAccountant.CA
