April 30 is the day that Americans can stop working to pay the taxman and start working for themselves, according to the Tax Foundation's annual estimate dubbed "Tax freedom day."
Tax freedom day is theoretical because it assumes we've been working 7 days a week since the start of the year, and that we don't spend anything we make. The 120 days from Jan. 1 through April 30 represents the time it will take the nation as a whole to earn enough to pay off all of the taxes that will be levied against us this year.
Breaking that 120 days down, the Tax Foundation estimates it will take:
- 43 days of work to pay off federal, state and local income taxes
- 30 days to pay off payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare)
- 16 days to pay off sales and excise taxes
- 14 days to pay off corporate income taxes (This assumes that a tax on a business is passed on to its customers, employees and shareholders in terms of higher prices, lower paychecks and less shareholder value.)
- 12 days to pay off property taxes
- 4 days to pay off other taxes (e.g., customs duties)
- 1 day to pay off estate and gift taxes
Based on an 8-hour workday, the research group estimates that Americans as a whole work:
- 1 hour 43 minutes to pay all federal taxes (income, sales, etc.)
- 1 hour 22 minutes to pay for housing and household operations
- 1 hour 8 minutes to pay for health and medical care
- 52 minutes to pay all state and local taxes (income, sales, etc.)
- 51 minutes to pay "other" taxes
- 40 minutes to pay for food
- 39 minutes to pay for transportation
- 28 minutes to pay for recreation
- 17 minutes to pay for clothing
1 comment:
"I do not, as is often done, use the word in any vague, uncertain, approximate, or metaphorical sense. I use it in its scientific acceptance -- as expressing the idea opposite to that of property [wages, land, money, or whatever]. When a portion of wealth is transferred from the person who owns it -- without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud -- to anyone who does not own it, then I say that property is violated; that an act of plunder is committed."
"I say that this act is exactly what the law is supposed to suppress, always and everywhere. When the law itself commits this act that it is supposed to suppress, I say that plunder is still committed, and I add that from the point of view of society and welfare, this aggression against rights is even worse. In this case of legal plunder, however, the person who receives the benefits is not responsible for the act of plundering. The responsibility for this legal plunder rests with the law, the legislator, and society itself. Therein lies the political danger."
--Frederick Bastiat, The Law
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