Today We Celebrate PA’s Tax Freedom Day

You might have thought Tax Freedom Day was April 17—the last day to file your taxes—but for Pennsylvania, it’s really today, April 18.

Tax Freedom Day is calculated annually by the Tax Foundation, and represents how many days the “average” resident must work to pay federal, state and local taxes. In total, Pennsylvanians will work 108 days in 2012, from January 1 to April 18, to earn enough money to pay their tax bills—a whopping 29 percent of the “average” resident’s total aggregate income.

The commonwealth has the 14th-highest tax burden in the nation, slightly worse than the national average, with a Tax Freedom Day of April 17. The highest tax burden in 2012 went to Connecticut, which won’t celebrate Tax Freedom Day until May 5, whereas Tennessee’s Tax Freedom Day occurred on March 30.

We have a say about how much government spends on our behalf. Tell your elected officials that we need to fireproof our financial future.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We use “average” resident/taxpayer because, of course, people pay different amounts.  Click here for more on the methodology and calculations of the Tax Foundation.