Every year, the Tax Foundation announces Tax Freedom Day—the day that Americans have supposedly worked enough days to pay their taxes. And every year, some poor saps in the media fall for it.
It’s a bogus statistic because of the progressive nature of income taxes. The rich pay a whole lot more than the poor, so there is no real average that means anything at all.
As the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities points out:
The Tax Foundation’s “Tax Freedom Day” report is plagued by two major problems. First, its estimates of state and local tax burdens suffer from a number of serious methodological flaws (see the box below). Second, over the years, many journalists and policymakers have misinterpreted the Tax Foundation’s report as reflecting the tax burdens faced by typical middle-income workers.
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2009.
Hey Jim,
I just got tea-bagged via robo-call.
Who put up the money for that? You think if they had any extra money in their pockets they might want to invest in an urban dictionary.
I’m still trying to decide if it was an obscene phone call.
Jennifer PM