Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Column

Tax beast lurks beyond deadline

By GREG HAMILTON
Published April 23, 2006

You work your fingers to the bone to pay your bills and take care of your family. And, of course, to feed the voracious beast that is the government and its insatiable tax appetite.

You would think that after the day your federal income tax return was due - Monday this year - you could put thoughts of this necessary evil behind you.

This year, the day Americans should keep in mind is Wednesday, April 26. Actually, for those of us in Florida, our golden day is Monday, April 24.

That is the day when we will have met this year's tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation.

That means that every day from Jan. 1 to that date, we have essentially been working to feed Uncle Sam and his kin. After that day, we can start to keep our paychecks.

Every year, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation www.taxfoundation.org calculates what it has dubbed as Tax Freedom Day, the point at which Americans have worked off their federal, state and local tax debt. The dates vary by state because some states, such as Florida, have no income tax.

The group asks the burning question: What price is the nation paying for government? This year, the answer is that the tax burden is 31.6 percent of our income. That's up a bit from last year's 30.9 percent and 2004's 28.9 percent.

Here is an interesting comparison: We all will work 77 days this year to pay our federal taxes, which is our largest single financial burden. The next biggest category is housing and household operations, coming in at 62 days. Health and medical costs are next, at 52 days; food is a paltry 30 days.

In Florida, we will toil another 37 days simply to pay off our state and local tax bills, meaning that we will work a total of 114 days for the government.

Tax Freedom Day for 2006 comes three days later than last year, and 10 days later than in 2004 and 2003. It is, however, earlier than in 2000, when freedom arrived on May 3.

The Tax Foundation factors in the impact of the federal tax cuts, particularly those of 2001 and 2003, which have somewhat eased the pain. Even with those cuts - which went largely to the richest of the rich in America - the percentage of income now going to pay taxes and the amount of time we are working to pay this bill is going up.

The group also notes the flip side of the tax cuts, the much-discussed, massive federal budget deficits that we ring up annually, our gift to our grandchildren and their kids. The Tax Foundation notes that if federal taxes were increased immediately to pay off the projected deficit for fiscal 2006, Tax Freedom Day would be pushed back to May 6, which would be the latest emancipation day ever.

That is a bit misleading, as it only considers a deficit of $319-billion. That number contains all sorts of smoke and mirrors, such as a federal budget that does not include a couple of big-ticket items like the war in Iraq and the new Medicare drug plan.

It also bears remembering that when President Bush took office in 2001, the White House projected a surplus for 2005 of $269-billion.

Oops.

You really don't want to think about the national debt, the amount that we Americans really owe. Trying to wrap your head around a figure of $8.4-trillion - that's with a T - is simply too painful. Imagine how many days we will have to work to make that red ink go away.

But back to this year and our own back yard. We Floridians can consider ourselves fortunate in one respect: We don't live in Connecticut or New York, where Tax Freedom Day is May 12 and May 9, respectively.

Our neighbors in Alabama, though, are laughing at us. They paid off their tax bill April 11.

Of course, when they woke up the next day, they were still living in Alabama.

Greg Hamilton is editor of editorials for Citrus County editions of the St. Petersburg Times. He may be reached at hamilton@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 23, 2006, 11:11:11]