Today is Tax Freedom Day, according to the Tax Foundation, a research group in Washington, D.C. The group calculates that up until today, Americans have been working for the government--i.e., all our earnings will go to pay taxes. Staring tomorrow, our money is our own. The date is figured by dividing total tax collections by total income, converting that into a percentage (in 2007, 32.7 percent), and then converting that percentage into a number of days worked.
April 30 is a national figure. Different states have different tax freedom days because of their different tax rates. For 2007, Virginia's is April 30, Maryland's is May 1, and the District's is May 12.
Tax Freedom Day has varied over time. In 1900, it came on Jan. 22. In 1950, April 1. The latest date was May 5, in 2000.
Comments