Arkansas LegislatureTax Reform

Happy (Belated) Tax Freedom Day, Arkansas: You Now Have Permission To Keep Your Money

Today is April 15th, the day that federal tax filings are due. (We hope this doesn’t come as a surprise to any of you.) So this seems like the perfect time to talk about how awful taxes are in America!

While today is (unfortunately) Tax Day, I want to be sure you know also know the good news about Tax Freedom Day. This is the day of the year that the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for year. A good way to think about this is that, up until Tax Freedom Day, every penny of income that Americans have earned belongs to the federal government. So the day after Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the calendar year that Americans actually get to work for themselves and not for Washington D.C.

To help us out, let’s look at this handy map from the Tax Foundation:

Tax Freedom Day 2014 Map_0As you can see, Tax Freedom Day for Arkansas was on April 12th, this past Saturday. If you’re an Arkansas taxpayer, the government will let you keep the money you make for the rest of the year. Hooray!

Nationwide, all Americans won’t experience Tax Freedom Day until April 21, three days later than last year.

This additional map shows that in 2014, Americans will spend more on taxes than they will on food, clothing, and housing — combined:

Chart_TFD_web_0

Taxes: they’re awful.

If you’d like to learn more about how Arkansas can — and should — reform its tax code, check out AAI’s Action Plan for Arkansas.

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