Tax day and Tax Freedom Day® are two days that we'll be glad to be past …
Allow me to be the 73rd person this year to remind you that tax day is just around the corner.
I'm thankful to have more than enough income that the government wants its fair share of my earnings, and to be fair, I always make it out to be harder and more arduous than it really is. A few hours with H&R Block and I'm done.
Tax day: Sometimes you get more time to procrastinate 🙂
April 15th is the date that sticks in most people's minds as the deadline to file US Federal Income Tax.
It used to be as early as March 1st (from 1913 to 1917). Tax day fell two weeks later through 1954, and then to its current date in 1955.
Sometimes (about 3/7 of the time, actually!) everyone gets a few more days to postpone the inevitable. If April 15th falls on a weekend day or a holiday, then the filing deadline gets pushed to the next day that's not a weekend day or a holiday.
The weekend part accounts for 2/7 of the time. A District of Columbia holiday called Emancipation Day accounts for the other 1/7. It's celebrated on the weekday closest to April 16th, so if April 16th falls on a Saturday, Emancipation Day is celebrated on Friday, which makes April 15th a holiday, which means taxes are due the following Monday. (Follow all that?)
I guess it's kind that they never push the deadline earlier!
Tax Freedom Day: Finally done with this working-for-Uncle-Sam stuff
A related, but largely symbolic, day is called Tax Freedom Day®. It's the day in a particular year when the year's taxes would be paid off, assuming that all income up to that point went to pay taxes. In other words, if a quarter of our income went to taxes, our Tax Freedom Day would be around the end of March. Everything after that would be “ours.”
It's a date that's only calculated after the fact (because those are when the income figures are available). It has been as late as May 1st (in 2000) and as early as January 22nd in 1900.
Over the past few years, it's been a bit later than tax day, landing somewhere in the second half of April. Tax Freedom Day has fallen at least in April since the 1960s.
The main observation from this: About a third of our income goes to federal taxes. And some state taxes push this date out almost another month! (I'm talking to you, Connecticut.)
In May they're both behind us
In the month of May, most of us are done with our taxes for another year, and we've likely started earning money for ourselves having passed Tax Freedom Day. (Yay!)
If you have a tax refund coming, it will be on the way soon. I recommend using it wisely.
If you got a big one, here's why you don't want a big refund. Perhaps take some steps to keep more of your money throughout the year.
(Tax Freedom Day® is a registered trademark of the Tax Foundation.)
Here in Australia we don’t file taxes until July because the fiscal year runs July-June.
Filing taxes is a lot easier because we just fill out a quick form on the government’s website. Usually takes less than an hour.
It’s easier for some kinds of returns here too, especially if not itemizing deductions.