One more week. That’s how much longer Americans will have to work before they’ve earned enough money to meet their tax obligations for 2013. The Tax Foundation has calculated Tax Freedom Day will fall this year on April 18, next Thursday.
Hang in there a few more days, and then your income will be your own. You’ll be able to spend it or save it as you please.
Tax Freedom Day is the day when, on average, U.S. workers have earned enough to pay all their federal, state and local taxes. “This year, Americans will work five days later than in 2012 to pay all of their taxes,” economist William McBride said in a news release from the Tax Foundation, which created the concept of Tax Freedom Day. “The total tax bill at all levels comes to approximately $4.2 trillion, or 29.4 percent of their total income.”
The numbers weren’t always that daunting. In 1900, Americans paid a mere 5.9 percent of their income in taxes and Tax Freedom Day arrived Jan. 22.
And the numbers aren’t so grim in individual states. Here in Florida, according to the Tax Foundation, our Tax Freedom Day will arrive April 15, three days before the national average.
Florida has no state income tax, which likely trimmed a day or two. But Florida’s property taxes generally are sky-high, which may have kept the Sunshine State from having a sunnier — read: earlier — Tax Freedom Day. Mississippi’s Tax Freedom Day was March 29. Tennessee’s was April 2.
Whatever the date, Tax Freedom Day is worth noting but hardly worth celebrating. It takes at least a quarter of the year to finish paying the tax man. When his hand finally exits our pockets, most of us just want to say: It’s about time.