Yahoo! It's Tax Freedom Day

By Dian Vujovich

Whew. You can wipe that brow now. Tax Freedom Day is officially here and only two days before that long arm of The Uncle demands you pay up or pay penalties.

Believe it or not, Tax Freedom Day (TFD) was the brainchild of Dallas Hostetler, a Floridian businessman. He concocted the plan in 1948, put all of the numbers together, got the copyrights and then deeded those rights to the Tax Foundation. Not exactly sure why he did this but the outcome depicts one day of the year that shows all of us how may days in a year we’ve had to work to pay our Uncle his due.

The number of days changes from year to year because our whacked-out, far-too-complicated-to-understand tax codes, rules and regulations change as often as the size of the beach on Palm Beach.

A little bit of history: In 1900, working folk only paid 5.9 percent of their income in taxes, consequently, TFD was January 22. Between 1900 and 1917, taxes rose and TFD was two days later. During the 1920s the big day arrived on various days during the month of February.

It took until the year 2000 for it to be extended to May 3— the latest date ever!

So, guess you might consider us awfully lucky this year. In spite of the market’s crash, Wall Street’s corruptions galore extravaganza and the fed’s looks-like-a-money-giveaway party, we haven’t had to work as long to pay our taxes now as we have in the past. Yippee Skippy. Things are looking up.

Tax junkies may read all the Tax Freedom Day particulars at: http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr165.pdf

Oh, in case you’re a little short, can’t round up all that’s due, but know you’ll have the cash in the very near future, one source suggests paying what you can.

The California Society of CPAs suggests sending in what you’ve got then waiting for the IRS to bill you for the balance. That bill ought to be coming to your mailbox in a month to 45 days. Of course, there will be interest and penalties added but isn’t there always when you’re paying late? That reminds me, my Bloomies bill is due today.