Every April, the non-partisan Tax Foundation releases a report that calculates how many days of the year Americans must work to pay local, state and federal taxes. The day when Americans will have earned enough income to pay their total tax bill for the year is named "Tax Freedom Day."
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This year Tax Freedom Day is today, April 26, 116 days into the year - three days after it occurred in 2005 and 10 full days later than in 2004.
Tax Freedom Day is calculated by dividing the per capita total tax burden on Americans by per capita income. That yields the total effective rate, which this year is 31.6%. On April 26, 31.6% of the year has been consumed. Thus, politicians this year will seize the equivalent of every penny every American earns up to that day just to pay for government.
Because each state has a different total tax burden, each state also has a different Tax Freedom Day, as seen in the table below.
Tax Freedom Day State-by-State
| 2006 Rank | State |
# of Days |
Date |
| 1 | Connecticut | 132 | May 12 |
| 2 | New York | 129 | May 9 |
| 3 | New Jersey | 126 | May 6 |
| 4 | Washington | 124 | May 4 |
| 5 | Minnesota | 123 | May 3 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | 122 | May 2 |
| 7 | Maine | 121 | May 1 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | 121 | May 1 |
| 9 | California | 120 | April 30 |
| 10 | Illinois | 120 | April 30 |
| 11 | Wyoming | 119 | April 29 |
| 12 | Wisconsin | 118 | April 28 |
| 13 | Maryland | 117 | April 27 |
| 14 | Nevada | 116 | April 26 |
| 15 | Vermont | 115 | April 25 |
| 16 | Ohio | 115 | April 25 |
| 17 | Hawaii | 114 | April 24 |
| 18 | Pennsylvania | 114 | April 24 |
| 19 | Michigan | 114 | April 24 |
| 20 | Virginia | 114 | April 24 |
| 21 | Florida | 114 | April 24 |
| 22 | Nebraska | 113 | April 23 |
| 23 | Colorado | 12 | April 22 |
| 24 | Indiana | 112 | April 22 |
| 25 | Georgia | 112 | April 22 |
| 26 | Kansas | 112 | April 22 |
| 27 | North Carolina | 111 | April 21 |
| 28 | Oregon | 111 | April 21 |
| 29 | Arizona | 110 | April 20 |
| 30 | North Dakota | 109 | April 19 |
| 31 | Kentucky | 109 | April 19 |
| 32 | Texas | 109 | April 19 |
| 33 | Delaware | 109 | April 19 |
| 34 | Utah | 108 | April 18 |
| 35 | Missouri | 108 | April 18 |
| 36 | Iowa | 108 | April 18 |
| 37 | Louisiana | 107 | April 17 |
| 38 | South Carolina | 107 | April 17 |
| 39 | New Hampshire | 107 | April 17 |
| 40 | Arkansas | 107 | April 17 |
| 41 | West Virginia | 107 | April 17 |
| 42 | Idaho | 106 | April 16 |
| 43 | Montana | 106 | April 16 |
| 44 | South Dakota | 106 | April 16 |
| 45 | New Mexico | 105 | April 15 |
| 46 | Tennessee | 104 | April 14 |
| 47 | Oklahoma | 104 | April 14 |
| 48 | Mississippi | 103 | April 13 |
| 49 | Alaska | 102 | April 12 |
| 50 | Alabama | 101 | April 11 |
| * | District of Columbia | 129 | May 9 |
The pie chart (above) shows where the money Americans earn will go: We will work longer to pay taxes this year (116 days) than we will to pay for food, health care and transportation combined (112 days).
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