Tax Freedom Day

Tax returns were due a week ago, but — believe it or not — the average taxpayer paid their overall tax bill the week before.
“Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 9 this year, the 99th day of 2010, according to our annual calculation using the latest government data on income and taxes,” according to Tax Foundation’s Web site posting. “Americans will work well over three months of the year — from January 1 to April 9 — before they have earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels.”
Tax Foundation adds that Tax Freedom Day was a day later this year than in 2009, but still was more than two weeks earlier than in 2007. It gave three reasons for this:
* The recession ate away at tax collections even faster than it eroded aggregate income.
* Temporary income tax reductions in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
* The estate tax and the so-called PEP and Pease provisions of the income tax were repealed for 2010 as part of previous legislation.
“Despite all these tax reductions,” the Web site noted, “Americans will pay more taxes in 2010 than they will spend on food, clothing and shelter combined.”
And we all know how cheap those three things are.
Actually, Tax Freedom Day came a day earlier in Ohio, on April 8, according to Tax Foundation, which ranks our state 23rd.
What do you plan to spend your bonus day on?