April 7, 2008
By Steve Bruss
Americans work, on average, twice as long to pay their federal taxes as they do to buy the food they need to survive. Throw in state taxes, and your tax burden takes three times as long to pay off as your grocery bill. Wonder why there's a prevailing sentiment that we pay too much to the government?
The Tax Foundation released its annual Tax Freedom Day report this past week, and said Americans this year will have paid off their tax burden come April 23. (Tax Freedom Day is the theoretical day on which the average American begins working for himself instead of government.)
In South Carolina, Tax Freedom Day is April 16, not bad, considering the latest Tax Freedom Day in the nation is May 8 (Connecticut). The earliest was March 29 (Alaska). All told, South Carolina has the 17th-earliest Tax Freedom Day. If you're looking for an average place to live, residents of Colorado and Illinois both meet their financial obligation to the government on April 23. [Read the full article.]