Wednesday, March 26, 2008

America Celebrates Tax Freedom Day on Apr. 23

Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 23 this year, the 113th day of 2008. That means Americans will work nearly four months of the year, from January 1 to April 23, before they have earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels.

Americans will work longer to pay for government (113 days) than they will for food, clothing and housing combined (108 days), see chart above. In fact, Americans will work longer to afford federal taxes alone (74 days) than they will to afford housing (60 days). As a group, Americans will also work longer to pay state and local taxes than they will to pay for food.

Tax Freedom Day had arrived later for the four previous years, but due to an expected slowdown in the nation's economy and a massive one-time fiscal stimulus tax cut passed earlier this year, Tax Freedom Day is projected to arrive three days earlier this year compared to last year.

5 Comments:

At 3/27/2008 7:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to see how this has changed over the last 50,100, 150 years. My guess is that food, clothing etc, were much bigger % and taxes smaller--in which case, extrapolating into the future would mean the taxes slice continues to grow relative to others.

 
At 3/27/2008 8:27 AM, Blogger Marko said...

Please note that as far as we currently know, the economy has not slowed – the economy is growing at a lower rate. In other words, it is accelerating less.

 
At 3/27/2008 8:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

While observers say the United States isn't approaching Russian standards YET, JPMorgan Chase & Co's planned takeover of Bear Stearns at $10 a share -- with Bear shareholders having little to say about it -- is a dissuader against investing in similar stocks.

"It's another of those watershed events which makes it clear to shareholders that their power is very limited," said Duke University Law School Professor James Cox. "It's somewhat fanciful, but it's also farcical, to have the perspective that shareholders have any sort of meaningful rights when the board of directors decides what to do."

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSN1933473620080327

On taxe you are over looking the biggest tax of all, inflation from the printing press in the USSA.

 
At 3/27/2008 2:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Marko,

Kinda like when they "cut" a Federal program or department by decreasing the spending rate growth. All spin all the time.

 
At 3/27/2008 5:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

By contrast, tax free day in Canada is June 20 which is an improvement. Tax free day fell on Jul 2 several years ago under PM Paul Martin. Just to put things into a bit of perspective.

Greetings from the land of the midnight tax!

 

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