much ado about tax

it took me a minute to recover from shock after i opened my first pay slip. krista's comment instantly flooded my mind, around 25%. i was sort of immobilized by disbelief, and when i finally recovered, the first thing i did was open up a calculator app on my pc.

compute-compute, and voila! around 25% of my first pay vanished and transformed into printed numbers on my payslip. just. like. that.

well, yes i might be over-reacting, but the figures are not. to be exact, 27.56% is gone. to federal income tax, social security, and medicare tax. i haven't signed up for any of the "investment opps" in the company since i'm not yet elibigle until the first of may. *grunt* may matira pa kaya sa suweldo ko pag nag-sign up ako? hehehe!

to gewi: when i told you 11% ang tax rate dito, ibang income bracket pala yon. hehehe!

i would like to think of the taxes i paid as an insurance. government insurance, which i will claim when i have kids who would go to public schools, the parks, gov't museums, and whose lives will be saved by policemen, firefighters, the army, etc. i would like to think that i'm paying for the time i save when i pass through the nice highways, and when i save car maintenance fees when i drive along smooth roads with no potholes.

i Googled the income tax brackets in pinas. and compared the government services. ok, that made me feel MUCH better. =P

Disclaimer:
pinoy pa rin ako sa isip, sa puso at sa gawa... i just feel bad for those who work their butts off, pay taxes dutifully, but still get the rotten services they don't deserve. pinoys can do it, some people just need a kick or a push. =)

speaking of pinoys getting bad gov't services, my mama made me write a letter reporting a Manila City Hall officer's disrespectful attitude. tsk tsk tsk! mali sya ng piniling bastusin. my mama is a VERY courteous and diplomatic person, but if you piss her off, she will chase you to the gates of hell. =P