Publications
Tax Freedom Day®
Tax Freedom Day® is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay off its total tax bill for the year. Tax Freedom Day provides Americans with an easy way to gauge the overall tax take-a task that can otherwise be daunting due to the multiplicity of taxes at various levels of government and "hidden" taxes and fees that are often buried in the cost of living (Read more about Tax Freedom Day). Tax Freedom Day computed by dividing total tax collections by the nation's income, as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Every dollar that is officially called income by the government is counted, and every payment that is officially considered a tax is counted. The resulting percentage is then converted into days of a 365-day calendar year.
We calculate Tax Freedom Day annually around the end of March. If you would like to be notified when a new version of this study is published, sign up for an email update here. Additional questions about Tax Freedom Day®? Contact us at (202) 464-6200.
Publications from The Tax Foundation
- Nation Works until 11:13 AM to Pay All Taxes, Lunchtime to Pay off the Deficit: 2011’s Tax Bite in the Eight-Hour Day , by Kail Padgitt and Alicia Hansen, May 5, 2011
- Tax Freedom Day® Arrives on April 12, by Kail Padgitt, March 30, 2011
- Tax Freedom Day: A Description of Its Calculation and Answers to Some Methodological Questions, by TF Staff, March 26, 2008
- 2007 Tax Freedom Day Press Conference Remarks by Curtis Dubay, by Curtis S. Dubay, March 28, 2007
- 2007 Tax Freedom Day Press Conference Remarks by Scott Hodge, by Scott A. Hodge, March 28, 2007