Tax Freedom Day

Last updated

Tax Freedom Day is a concept developed and trademarked by American businessman Dallas Hostetler, which aims to calculate the first day of the year on which a nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to pay its taxes. Every dollar that is officially considered income by the government is counted, and every payment to the government that is officially considered a tax is counted. Taxes at all levels of government – local, state and federal – are included.

Contents

History and methodology

The concept of Tax Freedom Day was developed in 1948 by Florida businessman Dallas Hostetler, who trademarked the phrase "Tax Freedom Day" and calculated it each year for the next two decades. [1] In 1971, Hostetler retired and transferred the trademark to the Tax Foundation. [2] [ better source needed ]

United States

In the United States, the "Tax Freedom Day" is annually calculated by the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Their results are as follows:

Tax Freedom Days in the U.S. since 1900: [3] [4]
YearTax Freedom DayTax Burden
1900January 225.9%
1910January 195.0%
1920February 1312.0%
1930February 1211.7%
1940March 717.9%
1950March 3124.6%
1960April 1127.7%
1970April 1929.6%
1980April 2130.4%
1990April 2130.4%
2000May 133.0%
2010April 926.9%
2011April 1227.7%
2012April 1329.2%
2013April 1829.4%
2014April 2130.2%
2015April 2431.2%
2016April 2230.9%
2017April 2330.9%
2018April 1929.7%
2019April 1629.0%

Around the world

Many other companies and organizations in countries throughout the world now produce their own "Tax Freedom Day" analysis. According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day reports are currently being published in eight countries. Due to the different ways that nations collect and categorize public finance data, however, Tax Freedom Days are not necessarily directly comparable from one country to another.

Tax Freedom Days for countries by date
CountryDay of year % burdenDate of yearUpdatedSourceReference
Switzerland12133%May 12015 Deloitte Archived June 25, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
India7420%March 142000 Centre for Civil Society
Australia10729%April 172019 Centre for Independent Studies
United States11431%April 242015 Tax Foundation
Estonia11431%April 242007 Eesti Maksumaksjate Liit (Estonian Taxpayers Association)
Lithuania12835%May 152015 Lithuanian Free Market Institute
Spain18150%June 302016 Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty and Spanish Taxpayers' Union [5]
Uruguay13339%May 132010 CPA Ferrere
Hungary14038%*May 202008 Hungarian Central Statistic Institute
New Zealand12735%*May 72018 Staples Rodway
South Africa14139%May 222014 Free Market Foundation
Bulgaria12436%May 42018 Radio Bulgaria
United Kingdom15141%May 312021 Adam Smith Institute [6]
Brazil15341%May 312014 Instituto Brasileiro de Planejamento Tributario
Slovakia15542%June 52017 Nadácia F.A.Hayeka
Canada16445%June 142019 Fraser Institute
Belarus13537%May 152016 The Public Association «Discussion and Analytical Society Liberal Club» [ permanent dead link ]
Croatia16144%June 102010Adriatic Institute for Public Policy
Czech Republic14941%May 292017 Liberální institut
Slovenia16437%June 132015 Svetilnik Archived June 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
Belgium21854%August 62018 Institut économique Molinari (IEM) Archived December 20, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
Greece16946%June 192012 Φορολογικό Παρατηρητήριο, Κέντρο Φιλελεύθερων Μελετών – Μάρκος Δραγούμης
Poland15643%June 62018 Centrum im. Adama Smitha
Germany19252%July 112015 Bund der Steuerzahler
Israel19754%July 142013 Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies
Turkey19453%July 142012 Liberal Democratic Party Archived October 20, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
Norway21057%July 292007 Skattebetalerforeningen
France20857%July 272018 Institut économique Molinari (IEM) Archived December 20, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
Bosnia and Herzegovina16144%June 102017 Centre for Policy and Governance «Centar za politike i upravljanje» Archived May 17, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
Austria21659%August 52019 Austrian Economics Center
Italy15342%June 22018CGIA
Mexico15646%June 52022Caminos de la Libertad

European Union

A 2010 study published in L'Anglophone, [7] a Brussels newspaper, compared the tax burdens of "Average Joes" in each of the 27 EU member states and projected the Tax Freedom Day for workers earning a typical wage. Income taxes, social security contributions (by the employee and the employer) and projected VAT contributions were included in the calculations.

Regarding the discrepancy between their calculation of August 3 as the typical Belgian worker's Tax Freedom Day and that of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), L'Anglophone's authors wrote: [8]

[PWC's] figures count revenue from all taxes (including those on corporate profits, petrol, cigarettes, &c.) and thus present a more complete picture of the country’s total tax burden," adding that it is "an average applied to all Belgians – not all Belgian workers; in 2008, less than half of Belgium’s population (4.99 million working out of 10.67 million citizens) was legally working. Consequently, a huge share of Belgium’s tax burden is borne by the working population.

2010 Tax Freedom Days for the "Average Joe" in the European Union, as published in L'Anglophone
CountryDay of year % burdenDate of year
Austria19152%July 10
Belgium21559%August 3
Bulgaria14540%May 25
Cyprus7219%March 13
Czech Rep.16545%June 14
Denmark16846%June 17
Estonia15041%May 30
Finland16645%June 15
France20756%July 26
Germany20055%July 19
Greece16445%June 13
Hungary21859%August 6
Ireland11732%April 27
Italy16946%June 18
Latvia16144%June 10
Lithuania16745%May 20
Luxembourg13537%May 15
Malta9927%April 9
Netherlands18450%July 3
Poland16044%June 9
Portugal15041%May 30
Romania17849%June 27
Slovakia16746%June 16
Slovenia16445%June 13
Spain13637%May 16
Sweden18149%June 30
United Kingdom13436%May 13

Criticism

In the book Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism , philosopher Joseph Heath criticizes the idea that tax-paying is inherently different from consumption:

It would make just as much sense to declare an annual "mortgage freedom day", in order to let mortgage owners know what day they "stop working for the bank and start working for themselves". ...But who cares? Homeowners are not really "working for the bank"; they're merely financing their own consumption. After all, they're the ones living in the house, not the bank manager. [9]

Mathematical

For Canada, the Fraser Institute also includes a "Personal Tax Freedom Day Calculator" that estimates a customized Tax Freedom Day based on additional variables such as age of household head, sex of household head, marital status and number of children. However, the Fraser Institute's figures have been disputed. For example, a 2005 study by Osgoode Hall Law Professor Neil Brooks [10] argued that the Fraser Institute's Tax Freedom Day analysis includes flawed accounting, including the exclusion of several important forms of income and overstating tax figures, moving the date nearly two months later. [11]

In America, while Tax Freedom Day presents an "average American" tax burden, it is not a tax burden typical for an American. That is, the tax burdens of most Americans are substantially overstated by Tax Freedom Day. The larger tax bills associated with higher incomes increases the average tax burden above that of most Americans.

The Tax Foundation defends its methodology by pointing out that Tax Freedom Day is the U.S. economy's overall average tax burden—not the tax burden of the "average" American, which is how it is often misinterpreted by members of the media. [12] Tax Foundation materials do not use the phrase "tax burden of the average American", although members of the media often make this mistake. [13]

Another criticism is that the calculation includes capital gains taxes but not capital gains income, thus overstating the tax burden. For example, in the late 1990s the US Tax Freedom Day moved later, reaching its latest date ever in 2000, but this was largely due to capital gains taxes on the bull market of that era rather than an increase in tax rates. In other words, variations in capital gains income and their associated taxes cause changes in the amount of taxes, but not in the income used in the calculation of Tax Freedom Day.

The Tax Foundation argues that the Tax Freedom Day calculation does not include capital gains as income because it uses income and tax data directly from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). BEA has never counted capital gains as income since they don't represent current production available to pay taxes, and so the Tax Foundation excludes them as well. Additionally, the Tax Foundation argues that the exclusion of capital gains income is irrelevant in most years since including capital gains would only shift Tax Freedom Day by 1 percent in either direction in most years. [14] A 1 percent change would represent 3.65 days. From 1968 to 2019 the date has never left the 21-day range of April 13 to May 3.

See also

Notes

  1. Madsen Pirie, Think Tank: A Story of the Adam Smith Institute, Biteback Publishing, 2012, p. 168
  2. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, "Tax Freedom Day" [ permanent dead link ]
  3. "The Tax Foundation – Tax Freedom Day and Tax Burden, 1900–2010". Archived from the original on May 15, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2006.
  4. "Tax Freedom Day 2019 is April 16th". April 10, 2019.
  5. Berechet, Cristina (May 24, 2016). "Tax Freedom Day 2016" (PDF). Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty. Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty & Spanish Taxpayer's Union.[ permanent dead link ]
  6. "Tax Freedom Day". Adam Smith Institute. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  7. "Wages and Taxes for the Average Joe in the EU 27" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  8. "Belgian Workers' Wages are Highest-Taxed in Western Europe". Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  9. Heath, Joseph. Filthy Lucre . p. 90.
  10. Professor Neil Brooks, Osgoode Hall, 2005, archived from the original on December 16, 2005, retrieved December 11, 2005
  11. Tax Freedom Day – A Flawed, Incoherent, and Pernicious Concept (PDF), June 5, 2005, retrieved August 16, 2016
  12. "Tax Foundation".
  13. "The Tax Foundation – America Celebrates Tax Freedom Day". Archived from the original on April 23, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2006.
  14. "Tax Foundation".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Per capita income</span> Average income of an economy

Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area in a specified year.

An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them. Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Taxation rates may vary by type or characteristics of the taxpayer and the type of income.

Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progressive tax</span> Form of tax

A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases. The term progressive refers to the way the tax rate progresses from low to high, with the result that a taxpayer's average tax rate is less than the person's marginal tax rate. The term can be applied to individual taxes or to a tax system as a whole. Progressive taxes are imposed in an attempt to reduce the tax incidence of people with a lower ability to pay, as such taxes shift the incidence increasingly to those with a higher ability-to-pay. The opposite of a progressive tax is a regressive tax, such as a sales tax, where the poor pay a larger proportion of their income compared to the rich

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a politically conservative U.S. advocacy group whose stated goal is "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today." According to ATR, "The government's power to control one's life derives from its power to tax. We believe that power should be minimized." The organization is known for its "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", which asks candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to oppose all tax increases. The founder and president of ATR is Grover Norquist, a conservative tax activist.

<i>Index of Economic Freedom</i> Annual index and ranking created in 1995

The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created in 1995 by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. The creators of the index claim to take an approach inspired by Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, that "basic institutions that protect the liberty of individuals to pursue their own economic interests result in greater prosperity for the larger society".

A capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax on profits realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property.

The Tax Foundation is an international research think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1937 by a group of businessmen in order to "monitor the tax and spending policies of government agencies". The Tax Foundation collects data and publishes research studies on U.S. tax policies at both the federal and state levels. Its stated mission is to "improve lives through tax policy research and education that leads to greater economic growth and opportunity".

A wealth tax is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets or an entity's net worth. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownership of unincorporated businesses, financial securities, and personal trusts. Typically, wealth taxation often involves the exclusion of an individual's liabilities, such as mortgages and other debts, from their total assets. Accordingly, this type of taxation is frequently denoted as a netwealth tax.

Arnold Carl Harberger is an American economist. His approach to the teaching and practice of economics is to emphasize the use of analytical tools that are directly applicable to real-world issues. His influence on academic economics is reflected in part by the widespread use of the term "Harberger triangle" to refer to the standard graphical depiction of the efficiency cost of distortions of competitive equilibrium. His influence on the practice of economic policy is manifested by the high positions attained by his followers in national agencies such as central banks and ministries of finance, and in international agencies such as the World Bank.

A tax incentive is an aspect of a government's taxation policy designed to incentivize or encourage a particular economic activity by reducing tax payments.

Taxation in Greece is based on the direct and indirect systems. The total tax revenue in 2017 was €47.56 billion from which €20.62 billion came from direct taxes and €26.94 billion from indirect taxes. The total tax revenue represented 39.4% of GDP in 2017. Taxes in Greece are collected by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.

This is a list of the maximum potential tax rates around Europe for certain income brackets. It is focused on three types of taxes: corporate, individual, and value added taxes (VAT). It is not intended to represent the true tax burden to either the corporation or the individual in the listed country.

Taxes in Germany are levied by the federal government, the states (Länder) as well as the municipalities (Städte/Gemeinden). Many direct and indirect taxes exist in Germany; income tax and VAT are the most significant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progressivity in United States income tax</span> Overview of tax rates

In general, the United States federal income tax is progressive, as rates of tax generally increase as taxable income increases, at least with respect to individuals that earn wage income. As a group, the lowest earning workers, especially those with dependents, pay no income taxes and may actually receive a small subsidy from the federal government.

Tax policy and economic inequality in the United States discusses how tax policy affects the distribution of income and wealth in the United States. Income inequality can be measured before- and after-tax; this article focuses on the after-tax aspects. Income tax rates applied to various income levels and tax expenditures primarily drive how market results are redistributed to impact the after-tax inequality. After-tax inequality has risen in the United States markedly since 1980, following a more egalitarian period following World War II.

Taxes in Cyprus are levied by both the central and local governments. Tax revenue stood at 39.2% of GDP in 2012. The most important revenue sources are the income tax, social security, value-added tax and corporate tax, and are all collected by the central government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pensions in Armenia</span>

There are various types of Pensions in Armenia, including social pensions, mandatory funded pensions, or voluntary funded pensions. Currently, Amundi-ACBA and Ampega act as the mandatory pension fund managers within Armenia.