This is the final weekend to work on your income taxes. April 17th is the deadline this year because the 15th falls on a Sunday and the 16th is a District holiday in Washington.
We filed our taxes earlier this week. We finally got the right paperwork from MegaCorp – whose bureaucracy still operates as it did in the 1990s.
The cost of running the government didn’t appear on the chart in this POST that looks at 75 years of consumer spending in the USA. Housing, food, & clothing are three of the TOP 4 categories though.
That’s why I was surprised to see this chart that shows that Federal, State, and Local taxes far overshadow all three of those life necessities COMBINED. Yikes – that’s a lot of taxes! Shocking, isn’t it?
Do you have your taxes filed yet?
Chart: TaxFoundation.com
MrFireStation 
The yoke of government waste weighs heavier on the shoulders of taxpayers every year. In return, the quality of government service declines every year. We are living the definition of insanity. And paying through the nose. I filed our taxes earlier this month. As a resident of Dem-Dominated-for-Decades CT, my state taxes once again far exceeded federal. Any chance the Reps has to turn that around this year (due to profligate failure of the lowest-rated Governor in all 50 states) is now near nil (due to the daily insanity of the Tweeter-in-Chief).
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Wow – your State tax rate is higher than Federal? We live be in also Dem-Dominated-for-Decades MN and our Governor has never heard of a tax he didn’t want passed. It will be really interesting to see how much mileage the GOP gets out of their Federal tax cut this fall. Hopefully, a lot! (Then we can talk about constraining spending!)
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CT tax rate per se does not exceed federal. But actual taxes paid far exceed federal (4-to-1 ratio for mine.) The statutory arcana that make this travesty possible could be explained by my accountant, but not by me. Lucre-legerdemain of CT legislature to filch is championship caliber. As for GOP, my prognostication is that mid-term election will be landslide turnaround in favor of Dems. Ryan wants out now, before the debacle.
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I sent my Federal and State checks two weeks ago (wanted to beat the mad rush to throw away good money!). Like Bowmanifesto, I will also be paying slightly more in State (VA) taxes than Federal taxes. It will be an even more pronounced difference next year with the new GOP tax changes lowering my Federal tax bill further.
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It used to be that I waited for the very last day to send taxes in. I’ve long since given up any semblance of protest!
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I had not heard that one – will have to look it up now on Spotify! Sounds like an anthem for Tax Day!
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My primary goal now is to build up enough savings to retire early and figure out how to minimize the tax rate I will have to pay when I do. I feel like taxes will only go up as time passes. People just love their entitlements too much.
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Agree – the total tax burden in the USA is still much less than Europe, so I figure the bureaucrats will take us in that direction over time.
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