Today is Tax Freedom Day in the US – and unfortunately, it’s not as enticing as it sounds. Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the year when the country has earned enough to pay its taxes.
The idea of Tax Freedom Day was developed in the US by a businessman named Dallas Hostetler. Hostetler later sold the copyright to the Tax Foundation.
So what does the Tax Foundation say about 2008? This year, Americans will work 74 days to afford their federal taxes and 39 more days to pay state and local taxes.
To buy food, Americans will work 35 days – 15 more days than is necessary to pay for health and medicare care (ouch!). Also shocking is that Americans must now work almost half as many days (29 days) to pay for transportation as to pay for housing (60 days).
On the plus side, Tax Freedom Day fell 3 days earlier this year than last (although it was also a leap year).
