high taxes

Sorry about the long silence – I’ve been away on vacation back in Canada for the past two weeks.  Thanks for those that wrote in wondering where I’d gone.  I’m back and will be posting more regularly going forward.

Times flies, it’s been almost a year since I’ve made the Netherlands my home. I’ve been working part-time for a while and been more than happy to forget about the tax bureau. But now transitioning into full-time work, I will most definitely have to pay some serious taxes – in a jurisdictions with one of the most unforgiving tax rates in the world.  It is a hard pill to swallow, especially considering I have worked in Canada, where taxes are hardly a walk in the park. High but tolerable taxes no longer.  Very soon, the Dutch will make the Canadian tax bureau look like child’s play while administering the distinctly western European slaps on my future paycheques.

This bothered me a lot.  It bothered me so much that I mused aloud one day whether it would make more sense for me to negotiate my salary down with my boss at the expense of some other extracurricular perks.  But then my senses interrupted this rather ridiculous monologue by reminding my pride how many multiples my friends are making of my salary, as is.  So in short, short-changing my self out of spite for taxes is like cutting off my nose to spite my face – a fruitless activity.

It takes a lot to justify paying into a social welfare system knowing it had done little to get me to where I am now, and that my stay may very well be temporary, and that it’s unlikely I will ever receive any kind of handout from the system given my situation.  It takes even more to know that for all the risks I have taken with my career and life, I have no choice but to let go of such a large portion of the hard-fought rewards to subsidize some very visible and truly abhorrent displays of entitlement, laziness, and pure stupidity.  Read more...