Robin SmithThe nonprofit Tax Foundation has published its annual report noting that Americans who lawfully comply with the requirement to pay income taxes will have essentially spent their entire earnings for 114 days of this year covering their burden to fund government - to the tune of $3.34 trillion in federal levies and $1.64 trillion to state and local taxes.
Incidentally, this sum of almost $5 trillion comprises 31 percent of America's national income and excludes the annual federal borrowing and interest on the debt, which is scored in bureaucratic accounting as "future taxes owed." If America's "loans" were included to keep our nation's addiction to spending fed, the Tax Freedom Day would be pushed back to May 10. So, through accounting gimmicks, we aren't told that America's workers hold the burden of our government's spending for 130 days of our 365-day calendar.
The national average literally breaks down as 46 days to pay your income taxes, 26 more days to cover your payroll confiscation, then 15 days for sales and excise tariffs, 11 days for property taxes, nine days for corporate tolls and the remaining seven days to cover miscellaneous taxes that might include death taxes and a variety of local fees.
The good news is if you live in Tennessee, because the state imposes no income tax, the Tax Freedom Day was April 6 - number two in the nation. Georgia workers began keeping their earnings on April 17, ranked 20th in America, and our Alabama neighbors were number eight in their Tax Freedom Day on April 8.
Please don't be mistaken, America's workers are breaking records for faithfully remitting dues to the government. In 2015, a record of $3.25 trillion of federal taxes alone was collected with a spending overdraft for this one budget year of $438 billion. In the first quarter of 2016, another federal high was reached as $1.48 trillion of our taxes were collected by the U.S. Treasury.
And our federal government is faithfully destroying the authentic American Dream by confiscating individual earnings to spend in a centralized government assuming it knows best. No matter what, we cover the losses.
To commemorate those who reject the truly criminal confiscation of our earnings, remember a few truths:
- "We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." - Winston S. Churchill
- " but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin
- "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson
- "The power to tax is the power to destroy." - John Marshall
- "The taxpayer is the new permanent underclass." - Andrew Wilkow
Our nation must have leadership to create a sustainable government that honors its citizens, not enslaves them.
Robin Smith, a former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party, is owner of Rivers Edge Alliance.