Tax Freedom Day Approaches

After filing their Form 1040, many taxpayers get the feeling that they’re working more for the government than they are for themselves. That’s not quite true, according to the Tax Foundation.

In fact, Tax Freedom Day, the day you stop working to pay your taxes and start working for yourself, arrived this year on April 9. That’s a day later than it came last year but two weeks earlier than it arrived in 2007. Last year’s date was the earliest since 1975, as a result of the recession and several large but temporary tax cuts.

Although a lot better than May 1, the date on which Tax Freedom Day came a decade ago, the April 9 date means that Americans will spend 99 days working to pay their taxes, including federal, state, and local income taxes, payroll taxes like Social Security, sales tax, and property tax. Americans will work the bulk of that time—almost two months–to pay income and Social Security taxes, and work almost another month to pay sales and property taxes.

Because taxes vary from state to state, some Americans will work longer than others to get out from under their tax burden. Taxpayers in Connecticut, for example, will toil the longest -- 117 days, until April 27 -- before they start working for themselves. New Jerseyans will log 115 days and New Yorkers will work 113 days before they reach Tax Freedom Day.

Residents of Alaska and Louisiana, on the other hand, will achieve tax freedom by March 26. Click here for a full rundown of state-by-state results.