MacIver News Service - 11:00 am Wisconsinites need to work from January 1st through the twelfth of next month, for a total of 102 days, just to pay for the annual taxes assessed by their government.
The Tax Foundation just announced on that Wisconsin’s Tax Freedom Day for 2010 will be April 12th. For the nation on average Tax Freedom Day is April 9th. Wisconsin has the 13th latest Tax Freedom Day in the country.
Calculated annually by the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day determines the day on which taxpayers will have earned enough money to pay this year’s tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels.
According to the Tax Foundation:
“The shift toward a lower tax burden since 2007 has been driven by three factors: (1) The recession has reduced tax collections even faster than it has reduced income; (2) President Obama and the Congress have enacted large but temporary income tax cuts for 2009 and 2010, just as President Bush did in 2008; and (3) Two significant taxes were repealed for 2010 as part of previous legislation, the estate tax and the so-called PEP and Pease provisions of the income tax.”
The calculation does not include deficit spending, the impact of the national debt, or the recently approved spending and taxes associated with health care reform bill.
The Tax Foundation noted that in general, Tax Freedom Day is coming later this year despite a continued slowdown in the economy and the deficit spending. Last year’s National Tax Freedom Day was one day earlier, April 8, 2009.
“If Americans were required to pay for all government spending this year, including the $1.3 trillion federal budget deficit, they would be working until May 17 before they had earned enough to pay their taxes—an additional 38 days of work,” the Tax Foundation announced Tuesday.
We will have updates, including local reaction to this announcement, later.
For additional information from the Tax Foundation, click here.
Every year the Tax Foundation announces “Tax Freedom Day.” The announcement allegedly marks the day Americans have “earned enough money to pay this year?s tax obligations at the federal, state, and local levels.” However, numerous third-party analyses of the Tax Freedom Day study have concluded that the Tax Foundation utilizes flawed methodology which misrepresents the tax burden facing middle-class and lower-income Americans.
Among the key findings of a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report on “Tax Freedom Day”:
* The Tax Foundation bases its “Tax Freedom Day” calculation on the share of total national income paid in taxes.
* While this figure can be useful for assessing overall revenue levels, it does not represent the share of income that the typical American pays in taxes.
* Because the federal tax system is somewhat progressive, the share of income that most Americans pay in federal taxes is considerably lower than the overall level of revenues as a share of total national income.
* Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that middle- and even upper-middle-income Americans pay less of their income in federal taxes than the “average” tax burden reported in the Tax Foundation’s “Tax Freedom Day” report.
For more information about this bogus “Tax Freedom Day” fallacy, check out this report at One Wisconsin Now’s WISTAX Watch site: http://rightwingwisconsinwatch.org/wistax_resources/wistax_resources_taxfoundation