by Amanda Griffin-Johnson
In 2012, Illinoisans will have to work 114 days to earn enough to pay their combined federal, state and local tax bill – seven days longer than the average of all the states. The Tax Foundation released their annual “Tax Freedom Day” report, which determines how long residents must work to pay off all tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels. National Tax Freedom Day this year is April 17, which is incidentally also Tax Day. The graphic below shows how long taxpayers must work to pay off particular federal taxes and averages of state and local taxes. For example, taxpayers have to work 32 days just to pay off federal individual income tax.
In addition to National Tax Freedom Day, each state also has their own Tax Freedom Day based on its own state and local taxes. Illinois’ Tax Freedom Day this year is
April 23rd, which is tied for the 5th latest day and is seven days later than the average of all states. As the map below shows, only Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington have a later Tax Freedom Day than Illinois. Comparatively, the earliest Tax Freedom Day is Tennessee on March 31 – 23 days earlier than Illinois.
On top of having one of the latest tax freedom dates, Illinois’ tax position is heading in the wrong direction.
In 2011, Illinois had the 9th latest rank of all the states with a Tax Freedom Day of April 15. But as other states have lowered taxes to attract families and businesses, Illinois has
failed to stay competitive. In fact, Illinois legislators have made Illinois less attractive by raising personal income taxes 67 percent and corporate income taxes 46 percent in recent years.
For more details, the full report by the Tax Foundation is available
here.
Click on the map to enlarge.
