When you see them being deducted from your income, taxes kind of suck. You’ve earned all that money and now a chunk of it is being taken from you before you’ve even seen it. But honestly, there’s a reason why some of the countries with the highest taxes are among the happiest countries in the world. It’s because when they’re handled responsibly, and as long as income is already high enough to support folk, taxes can be used to make communities vibrant with social spaces, activities, and factors like free to access healthcare, subsidised childcare and end of life care that make a person’s life so much better.

The real problem? Corrupt governments and officials that use taxpayers’ money for their own vanity projects and to line their own pockets. That is never okay, and charging high taxes just to exploit and abuse their power is a heinous act. But to tax folk – especially the rich – appropriately to ensure that ordinary people live in safe and welcoming communities with a high quality of life? It makes sense and leads to much greater happiness overall.

Unfortunately for the guy in this story, he doesn’t really get that. He doesn’t understand why his cash should be contributing to the public services that he’s using on a daily basis, and now he’s mad at his wife for chiding him.

Read on to find out what happened here.

AITA for refusing to quit my work because my wife thinks it is not ‘real IT’?

I (36, male) moved to Canada about a year ago after my wife (34, female) and I finally got all the immigration paperwork sorted out.

She’s a doctor, and before moving I worked in IT in India.

Before anyone asks, yes, my wife always knew I worked for an IT company. I never hid that.

When I moved, my company actually promoted me and let me continue working remotely, so I decided to keep the job instead of starting over.

Let’s see how his job looks on the day to day.

My work is split into two main responsibilities. One is as a sales agent where I call leads and try to sell security softwares.

The other is managing teams in India that handle influencer campaigns, including coordinating reviews and sentiment influencing for clients.

It’s a mix of technical knowledge, sales, and management, so I consider it part of the IT industry.

The problem is that my wife doesn’t.

Read on to find out what problem his wife has.

She constantly tells me I don’t actually work in IT because I’m not coding or doing system administration.

She even asked to see my degree because she said she doesn’t understand how someone with an IT degree ends up doing this kind of work.

Another issue is taxes. Since I’m still employed by my company in India, my salary is paid to a relative there, who then transfers the money to me.

Arrangements like this aren’t unusual where I’m from, especially for people working abroad.

But his wife has an issue with this as well.

My wife says that because I’m living in Canada I should be paying Canadian taxes and that what I’m doing is wrong. I understand technically but it is just a legal thing not moral, plenty of people optimise taxes.

She keeps telling me I should either quit and stay home until I find a Canadian job or just accept whatever work I can get here.

The problem is that I have been trying to find an IT job here, and it’s been much harder than I expected.

The jobs I can actually get right now are mostly entry-level retail or warehouse positions, and they pay significantly less than what I’m earning from my company in India. Financially, keeping my current job makes much more sense.

Read on to find out how he’s feeling about all of this.

I also don’t want to be unemployed. I’d honestly be embarrassed sitting at home while my wife works, especially when I already have a job that pays well.

She says she’d rather support me while I look for something legitimate in Canada than have me keep doing this job. I think she’s dismissing my career and acting like what I do isn’t real work.

We’ve been arguing about it for months now. Am I wrong for refusing to quit my job?

AITA?

Honestly, while it seems like the communication isn’t great between this guy and his wife, she does have legitimate reasons for being concerned.

It’s not about his job as such, it’s the way he’s being paid. He’s literally committing tax fraud in the country he’s chosen to live in, and he sees no issue with that whatsoever.

Meanwhile his wife is probably more concerned about their immigration status.

Let’s see what folk on Reddit had to say about this.

This person explained that while he’s not in the wrong for having the job he has, he’s absolutely wrong for avoiding paying taxes.

While others pointed out that his choices put the couple at risk of deportation.

Meanwhile, this person thought that his wife was likely trying to protect her own reputation.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman whose family says she’s selfish for not wanting strangers living in her trailer.

And this Redditor thought that his job itself sounded shady too.

Let’s be quite clear: immigration, generally, can be a very positive thing. The mixing of cultures and the freedom to move and live in other places in the world is a blessing, and something that it is great to encourage and facilitate. But there’s a certain agreement that you make when choosing to uproot your life and live in another country. You’re agreeing not to change who you are – certainly your culture and beliefs should be respected wherever you are in the world – but you should certainly be abiding by your new country’s rules and laws. And one of those things to abide by is taxes.

His wife is a doctor, a profession in which trust is vital and public accountability is huge. It’s vital that the community can trust his wife day to day, and so it’s logical that she’s concerned that his choices are ultimately going to cost her that trust – or even lead to them being deported. Because as much as he wants to portray her as nagging, she is right in what she is saying: he is not following the law and his attitude to taxes is wrong. It might be a cultural norm, sure, but he is in Canada now, and he acting in a way that could breach their residency status – and that’s not okay.