Tax Freedom Day One Day Earlier as the Tax Environment in Wisconsin Improves

MacIver News Service | April 15, 2013

April 15th has been celebrated as Tax Day in the United States for over five decades. However, when it comes to taxes, another day should receive a greater amount of attention. That day is what the Tax Foundation has titled, Tax Freedom Day.

The MacIver News Service previously reported that the national Tax Freedom Day for 2013 would be April 18th. Tax Freedom Day observes the day that taxpayers have earned enough money to pay all their taxes for the year. In other words, if taxpayers’ entire income went to the government until the total amount of taxes were paid for the year, individuals would not receive a paycheck until April 19th.

Wisconsin has an even later Tax Freedom Day. Taxpayers from the Badger state do not observe Tax Freedom Day until April 20th. This has improved by one day over the previous year.

MacIver previously reported data released from the Department of Revenue that showed individual income revenue in the state was up nearly eight percent over the previous fiscal year. While other states increased taxes to cover budget deficits, Wisconsin cut spending to avoid raising taxes. All of this led to an earlier Tax Freedom Day.

Governor Scott Walker has been pushing for a $343 million income tax cut in his proposed budget that would most likely lead to an even earlier Tax Freedom Day in 2014.

While Wisconsin is moving in the right direction to reduce the tax burden, it still has one of the highest state and local tax burdens of any state in the nation. At a rate of 11.1 percent in 2010, the state ranked 5th highest. Wisconsin has been one of the top five highest states for state and local tax burden all but five times since 1977. The states lowest ranking in that timeframe was in 2001 and 2006 when it dropped to seventh highest in the nation.

The Tax Foundation also ranked Wisconsin 43rd in the country for business climate due to a high business tax burden.