Today is Tax Freedom Day. What is that, you ask? If you add up all the federal, state, and local taxes that the government will take from us this year (income tax, sales tax, property tax, etc.), the average American’s share would equal all the money you’ve earned from January 1 to today (April 26). It’s a way of illustrating just how much of our money the government takes from us each year. That’s 83 days of work (116 days counting weekends) just to pay Uncle Sam. Much of it we aren’t even aware of, for example the taxes listed on your phone bill, or taxes you pay whenever you buy gas at the pump. According to the Tax Foundation, the average American will pay more in taxes this year than they will for food, clothing and medical care combined.
Taxes were not always this high. According to this website, in 1920 Tax Freedom Day was only January 20. The total government bill then was only 5.7% of our income, today it’s almost 32% (and we’re still running a deficit!)
I’m not anti-taxes. We need to have a government and that’s going to cost money. But 32% is outrageous.
Of course there’s nothing I can do about it. I just needed to vent.