Hello John_W,

Obviously there are several different kinds of taxes.

* Federal Income Tax, as you may imagine, is the same across the country (except for residents of the remote, northern part of the country who receive some sort of tax break).

* A Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 7% is charged on most commercially traded products and services across the country. There are some exemptions, e.g., basic groceries and prescription drugs.

* Provincial Income Tax. On the following website you can look up the combined Federal and Provincial Income Tax for each province. It does indeed appear that Quebec's is the highest in Canada.

http://www.taxtips.ca/tax_rates.htm#QCTaxRates

* Provincial Sales Tax. Here are 2 websites about the Provincial Sales Tax that is charged on commercially traded goods and services, over and above the GST.

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/taxinfo/a/pst1.htm

http://www.taxtips.ca/provincial_sales_tax.htm

Quebec's Sales Tax is no higher than the sales taxes of several other provinces.

For what pension plans are worth, it may interest you to know that Quebec has opted out of the Canada Pension Plan, and has implemented the Quebec Pension Plan in its place. I don't know how the logistics work when a person moves back and forth between Quebec and other parts of Canada. You may be able to find out something at this website:

http://www.rrq.gouv.qc.ca/an/rente/11.htm

Regagrding the Canada and Quebec Pension plans, when you work in Quebec, you contribute to the QPP and when you work elsewhere in Canada, you contribute to the CPP. No matter where you have contributed, if you retire in Quebec, you receive the QPP; if you retire in the rest of Canada, you receive the CPP. They are not identical, but very similar, and your contributions to both will be applied to your eventual pension.