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ILLINOIS’
APRIL 30 TAX FREEDOM DAY TIED FOR LATEST IN MIDWEST
Illinois Policy Institute
When it comes to taxes, everyone works for
the government. Illinoisans worked 120 days – from Jan. 1 until April 30
– to pay the taxes they owe to federal, state and local governments.
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 If Illinoisans were to pay the government up-front for all the federal, state
and local taxes they owe for 2017, they’d have to work 120 days before they get
to keep any of the money they earn, according to a new report by the nonpartisan
Tax Foundation.
Taxpayers in Illinois have to work until April 30, or 33 percent of the year,
before they keep a dime for themselves – seven days longer than the national
average and 10 days longer than the average taxpayer in any Midwestern state. In
fact, the Tax Foundation’s calculations show Illinois’ Tax Freedom Day is tied
for the latest in the Midwest, along with Minnesota’s.
Despite the state’s dismal ranking, state politicians continue to call for a
massive income tax hike to fill Illinois’ estimated $7 billion deficit in 2018.
If that weren’t bad enough, lawmakers also want to charge a brand new sales tax
on services such as landscaping, video streaming services and automobile repair.
But Illinois taxpayers need to know that state government can close the budget
gap without any new or increased taxes.
Tax Freedom Day across the country
The Tax Foundation annually calculates Tax Freedom Day as the day when the
nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for the
year. The analysis takes all federal, state and local taxes – individual as well
as payroll, sales and excise, corporate and property taxes – and divides them by
the nation’s income.
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According to the report, the national Tax Freedom Day is April 23
– 113 days into the year.
Americans on the whole will work 46 days to pay their federal, state
and local individual income tax bills. They will spend 26 days
working to satisfy their payroll tax obligations, and 15 additional
days to pay sales and excise taxes. Property taxes eat up another 10
days. Estate and inheritance taxes, customs duties and other taxes
take another 16 days to pay off.
The report also provides Tax Freedom days for all 50 states. The
data show some individual state tax burdens are much worse than the
national average.
Illinois is tied with Minnesota as having the 44th-latest Tax
Freedom Day of any state. That means residents of 42 other states
have a lower tax burden than people living in the Land of Lincoln.
illinois tax freedom dayAnd Illinois ties with Minnesota for the
highest tax burden across the entire Midwest. Illinoisans have to
work a full three weeks longer than people in South Dakota just to
pay taxes.
That’s a lot of days spent working for the government.
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