Uncle Sam is hawk-eyed and he never misses any detail; especially that involve a taxpayer’s income. The IRS ensures that all eligible Americans show responsibility to their country by paying their taxes. In most cases, Americans know the amount that is routinely chopped off by the taxman every payday but few Americans have a clue of the time it takes them to keep Uncle Sam happy and by extension, stay away from trouble.
The Tax Foundation, a Washington D.C-based tax policy nonprofit organization, came up with an eight-hour-tax bite calculation, which indicates that, an average American with a 9:00 am – 5:00 pm job spends approximately 2 hrs and 13 min, every day to pay taxes. In short, of the eight hours worked, more than a quarter of the time is spent literally, working for the federal government; 27.7 percent. Those that report to work at 9.00 am pay their tax dues for the day at 11.13 am. The rest of the day is what enters their pockets. However, this is minus the cash needed to pay the federal deficit, which when incorporated, according to the Tax Foundation, further pushes the “paid time” to 12:07 p.m.
According to the foundation, the time varies with the type of tax an individual is entitled to, as well as the state of residence. A taxpayer’s income tax consumes most of the working time of an individual. The Tax Foundation included the income tax levies taken by different States and the numerous local governments. In total, all income taxes amount to an average of approximately 46 minutes of work in an eight-hour workday.
Social insurance levies, like Social Security and Medicare, consume 29 minutes of a workday, while sales and excise taxes takes 20 minutes of your workday. Property taxes and corporate taxes consume 16 minutes each, while other taxes account for 5 minutes of work each day. To round it all up, it takes a taxpayer one minute to cover estate and gift taxes.
The Tax Foundation further broke down the work day tax clock for each state as the tax workday times vary from state to state, and are based on the state’s income levels and different tax burdens. Residents of Mississippi pay their taxes the earliest, at 10:51 am, two minutes before workers in Tennessee complete theirs; at 10.53 am. Both South Dakota and Louisiana clear their tax dues at 10: 57 am, two minutes after South Carolina taxpayers that complete at 10:55 am.
Toiling the longest to pay their taxes are workers in Connecticut. Nutmeg state workers have to work till 11:40 am. to clear their taxes. Equally laboring longer, are workers in New Jersey who have to wait until 11:36 am. to get the IRS off their backs. Washington and California clear their dues at 11:19 am while Maryland does the same at 11:20 am. Information about the other states’ tax bits is available on the Tax Foundation website.
