I need help with this Tax Freedom Day thing

[trumad]

Repukes brag that it as a great thing for their party that the day comes earlier than ever before.... Is it that significant?

Thanks

Washington, D.C., April 7, 2004 — According to Tax Foundation calculations using the latest government data on income and taxes, Tax Freedom Day® in 2004 will be celebrated on April 11th, the earliest Tax Freedom Day for 37 years.

April 11th is three days earlier than 2003’s Tax Freedom Day of April 14 and an amazing 21 days earlier than in 2000, when the boom and bubble pushed tax burdens to a record high, and Tax Freedom Day was postponed until May 2 (see Figure 1).

"Federal tax cuts have made the average American tax burden lighter in 2004," said Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge. "Because the bubble in 1999 and 2000 boosted tax collections to artificially high levels, the drop since then is all the more dramatic. In fact, it is the biggest drop in America's tax burden for at least a century."
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday.html

[RobertSeattle]

1. I'd rather have deficit FREEDOM day

But that another matter.

All they did was drastically reduce the taxes on the mega wealthy so the AVERAGE (note that didn't mention MEDIAN) taxes went down. Watch out whenever a Right Winger starts using AVERAGE when talking tax policy - they are hood winking you.

[trumad]

3. I know ..thanks

but is having this day earlier a good talking point for the repubs?

[RobertSeattle]

4. I guess if it makes them happy!

I've always found "tax freedom day" a silly diversion story. The primary reason it went down was the tax cuts to the rich, and the primary reason it will go back up is the AMT tax.

[soup]

2. Good question.

Wouldn't it mean more people had (better paying) jobs in 2000?

I don't know, but I can give this a kick.

[Tennessee Gal]

5. Flawed! Check this out..................

TAX FREEDOM DAY REPORT FLAWED

Washington, DC — The Tax Foundation today issued a report stating that "the nation’s taxpayers" must work until May 3, 2000 to pay taxes. In fact, according to Iris Lav, deputy director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, tax burdens of the magnitude claimed by the Tax Foundation are characteristic only of the 20 percent of American taxpayers with the highest incomes and substantially exceed the tax burdens that middle-income families face.

The two leading sources of tax information for Congress — the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation — find that federal taxes on families in the middle of the income spectrum are substantially lower than the taxes the Tax Foundation claims "the nation’s taxpayers" must pay. Based on these respected sources, Lav said, "the Tax Foundation overstates the federal taxes paid by an average middle-class family by at least 25 percent."

The Tax Foundation also claims that Americans’ tax burdens have reached a new record high each year since 1993. This assertion is untrue for most taxpayers. Both CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation, as well as a number of other researchers, find that federal taxes on middle-income families have been declining in recent years. Tax burdens on such families have not risen as the Tax Foundation report would lead the public to believe. For example, the tax-cut legislation enacted in 1997 established, among other provisions, a child tax credit and education tax credits that have reduced taxes on the broad middle class. That legislation also sharply reduced the tax rate on capital gains income, which has reduced effective tax rates for many higher-income taxpayers as well.

http://www.cbpp.org/4-15-00tax.htm

[trumad]

6. Thanks so much

Bingo...

[sablescort]

7. Freedom Day for the Rich

but we middle class and the poor still have to pay thru increased state taxes, property taxes, various fees you name it thanks to the idiotic tax cut pushed thru by Dumbya....

[jmowreader]

8. Tax Freedom Day is a load of shit

It is supposedly the day that all of your obligations to the government have been paid, assuming that you send every cent you make from January 1 to TFD to some government agency.

It has two problems.

The first is that since everyone pays a different amount of tax, even on the same income level, everyone's "tax freedom" comes on a different day. If Jim with no kids was Jim with four kids, I would be receiving the Child Tax Credit of $4000--last year my tax bill was $2600 or thereabouts, so my tax freedom day would be sometime in February.

The second problem is that I send the government money all year round. I don't know what these nutballs at the Tax Foundation do. In reality, there is no tax-freedom day.

This doesn't factor in the minor problems--like that the Fayettenam City Council raises my property taxes every fucking year.

[CaTeacher]

9. this is stupid--why should we

be proud of the fact that we are not contributing to our society as much as we should?

Why don't we end poverty once and for all--and then celebrate the anniversary of THAT date every year?