It’s National Pi Day! Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 because the date (3/14) coincides with the numeric value of Pi (the Greek letter written as “π”). Pi is used in math to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The number works out to approximately 3.14159. That’s the number most of us learned in high school. Actually, Pi is an irrational and transcendental number which means that it’s a real, algebraic number that goes on forever (yes, forever) without ever being repeated.
Pi Day is generally celebrated in the retail and restaurant worlds with pie-related specials and discounts. You can see some Pi Day specials here.
So what does Pi Day have to do with taxes? Nothing, really. But in the spirit of the day, I did put together a pie for you… (insert groans here)
This pie chart shows how your tax dollars from 2014 were spent based on the 2014 Fiscal Year Budget:
What you won’t see? Social Security, Medicare Hospital Insurance, unemployment insurance, and highway and mass transit spending. Those are paid for with sources other than federal income tax dollars. However, if the cost of these programs exceeds the amount of funding available from dedicated sources, the difference is paid for by your income tax dollars.
You can see your personalized taxpayer receipt by the dollars from the White House by plugging in the tax you paid in 2014 here. The numbers for 2015 aren’t out yet – remember, you’re still working on those tax returns. You can see your 2015 tax rates here.
