Tax Freedom Day

One of my favorite days finally arrives this Thursday. There’s no fanfare or lights that twinkle, no fireworks or costumes or special banquets. But it is still a special day for all of us, even if you don’t consciously celebrate its arrival. It’s called Tax Freedom Day and it comes to Texas on April 19!

What is this holiday that has escaped the attention of Hallmark Cards? It is the day of the year when you’ve earned enough income to satisfy your federal, state, and local tax bills. That means that starting Thursday, if you’re the average Texan you’re finally done paying your tax bill and can start earning money towards other fun stuff like food, clothes, and housing.

Part of the difficulty in properly celebrating TFD each year is its fluctuating date. For instance, ‘national’ TFD – the average for the entire country – doesn’t arrive until April 30^th! Due to Texas’ relatively low property and sales taxes, ours arrives over two weeks earlier than the national average, but still not as early as Oklahoma’s which was last Thursday, the 12^th.

Lest you feel slightly less blessed for living in Texas, it’s just another reason to be glad you don’t live in New Jersey (May 10), New York (May 16), or pretty little Connecticut (May 20). And just because I know you’re wondering it’s May 7 in California.

Where do taxes rank in your overall expenditures? The national average requires 79 days of earnings to pay off your federal tax bill and another 41 to handle state and local taxes. Then you typically work 62 days for housing and household items, 52 days for health and medical care, 30 days for transportation, 30 days for what you’re planning to eat and 13 for what you’ll wear while you’re cooking it. Oh, and 22 days for fun and recreation.

How does 2007 compare with the past? In the past four years TFD has moved from April 19^th to the 26^th to the 28^th. In 2003 it came on April 19^th like it did in 1983 and 1985. The earliest TFD has arrived in the past 25 years was April 18, 1984. How does January 22, 1900 or February 12, 1930 or March 7, 1940 sound? Don’t get your hopes too high – we’ve been in April since 1950. Well, except for 2000 when we actually hit May 5^th!

Want to blame Presidents? Reagan’s TFDs were April 18-24. Bush Sr. ran April 22-24. Clinton began April 22 and went up every year until it reached May 5^th. W’s TFD dates run May 1, April 21, 18, 19, 26, 28, and now 30.

In fairness, it should be pointed out that 57.1% of federal income taxes are paid by – care to guess? – five percent of all earners. So yes, if someone cries that "tax cuts are only for the rich" there is much truth in that since they’re the ones that pay taxes! And "rich" is defined as households (not individuals) that earn $100,000 per year or more.

At this point in the column, I was going to delve into history, economics, tax policy, capitalism, government inefficiency, the Constitution, unemployment and wage rates, estate taxes, the Great Depression, the New Deal, flat tax and consumption tax, and a bunch of other really interesting (at least to me) stuff. In fact, I was already about six paragraphs into describing the errors of the past few generations, the irresponsibility of elected officials, the fallacy of hiring (electing) folks that will decide how much we’ll give them and what they can use it for, redistribution of wealth and the economics of taxation when I stopped having fun writing and deleted it all.

You see, I really want to celebrate this day. I can fight the battles of governmental policies and Constitutionality another day, maybe one of the days I’m not working to pay for food. Heck, I might even sacrifice one of the days I’ll work for leisure spending since I have so much fun doing this. Actually, I don’t mind paying taxes that much – it’s the price we pay for living in the best and most affluent country in the world. I suppose I just wish I felt we got a better bargain for the price.

My goal is for you to enjoy April 19^th because you’re finally working for yourself and the things you want for your family – that whole ‘American dream’ thing. If sometime in the next few days or weeks when you’re still working for your own benefit, you consider how much more (or less) of what you make you’d like to hand over to politicians we can talk…

Oops, almost went off on another rant there. It’s hard to keep this keyboard on task sometimes.

Enjoy the day. Hopefully it’ll be warm, but not too hot, so I can get right to work on food and leisure earnings, without worrying so much about clothing or air-conditioning just yet.

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