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Editorial: Adding up impact of taxes we pay

The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register editorial

Now that the deadline to file federal tax returns without seeking an extension has passed (on Tuesday), we can all relax and stop gritting our teeth about how much of our hard-earned income goes to Washington.

Or not.

Each year, the Tax Foundation think tank compiles statistics and other information regarding local, state and federal taxes. Among tidbits released this week:

“Tax Freedom Day” this year is April 23. That is the date that, on average, U.S. taxpayers will have worked long enough into the year to pay off all our tax liabilities.

Tax Freedom Day has grown later for several years. When former President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the date was April 9.

We Americans pay about $3.5 trillion a year in federal taxes and another $1.6 trillion to local and state governments.

About 31 percent of what we Americans earn every year goes to the government at some level.

We spend more on taxes than on food, clothing and housing combined.

Tax Freedom Day for West Virginians, taking state taxes into account, was April 12.

For Ohioans, Tax Freedom Day is April 20.

If the impact of federal government borrowing is taken into account, Tax Freedom Day is May 7.

President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have made tax reform one of their top priorities. Yet many liberal politicians say we don’t pay enough taxes.

What do you think?

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