Sunday is Tax Freedom Day, the day when American workers as a whole have worked long enough to pay the nation’s tax burden for the year, according to the National Tax Foundation.
This year, it took Americans 113 days to earn enough to cover $3.5 trillion in federal taxes and $1.6 trillion in state and local taxes, for a total tax bill that equals 31 percent of the nation’s income.
As the Tax Foundation notes, however, the total tax burden varies considerably from state to state due to differing tax policies and the progressivity of the federal tax system. This means that states with higher incomes and higher taxes celebrate Tax Freedom Day later. New Jersey has the second latest date for tax freedom, May 13, beating Connecticut (May 21) by more than a week and coming in later than New York (May 11) by just two days.
