And what do those taxes buy those who pay them exactly?
Here is a serious reply to your question without any sarcasm:
For every citizen, resident, illegal and tourist "EVERY HUMAN BEING!" ... all taxes paid by the tax payers ... pay for the running of the government and all that it provides.
Essential services and infrastructure are generally available and consumed or used by everyone at one time or another. Some of the ones I can readily think of are:
Fire, police, ambulatory services as well as border protection and national defense. Maintenance and upkeep of public roads, bridges, etc ... along with trash collection and in some cases public heath care.
I think that the above list (As incomplete as it may be???) is what I would refer to as TIER1 in terms of what is done with taxes collected.
TIER2 (Again very incomplete here!) is stuff like public services ... court system, registry, libraries, public spaces and gathering areas.
TIER3 (AGAIN - Even more incomplete!!) Publicly funded attractions or entertainment ... Museums, monuments, celebrations on a city, provincial or federal level.
And of course ... to pay for all those who work in the system and are dependent upon it. (Low or no income individuals and families who are at the mercy os welfare assistance.)
And truthfully, you can argue for or against some of this stuff quite well. The real challenge that I see is to not have waste, but with every person having a different point of view and need ... it is impossible to just provide what one would consider the essential public services. Therefore, taxes are levied, funds are collected and programs are funded. In a sense, the money gets spread around.
WIth human nature being what it is, there is theft in one way or another by service providers to the government and by it's employees.
That's it in the nutshell.