Every April, the non-partisan Tax Foundation releases a report that calculates how many days of the year Americans must work to pay local, state and federal taxes. The day when Americans will have earned enough income to pay their total tax bill for the year is named "Tax Freedom Day."

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This year Tax Freedom Day is today, April 26, 116 days into the year -- three days after it occurred in 2005 and 10 full days later than in 2004.

Tax Freedom Day is calculated by dividing the per capita total tax burden on Americans by per capita income. That yields the total effective rate, which this year is 31.6%. On April 26, 31.6% of the year has been consumed. Thus, politicians this year will seize the equivalent of every penny every American earns up to that day just to pay for government.

Because each state has a different total tax burden, each state also has a different Tax Freedom Day, as seen in the table below.

Tax Freedom Day State-by-State

2006 Rank	State	# of Days	Date
1	Connecticut	132	May 12
2	New York	129	May 9
3	New Jersey	126	May 6
4	Washington	124	May 4
5	Minnesota	123	May 3
6	Massachusetts	122	May 2
7	Maine	121	May 1
8	Rhode Island	121	May 1
9	California	120	April 30
10	Illinois	120	April 30
11	Wyoming	119	April 29
12	Wisconsin	118	April 28
13	Maryland	117	April 27
14	Nevada	116	April 26
15	Vermont	115	April 25
16	Ohio	115	April 25
17	Hawaii	114	April 24
18	Pennsylvania	114	April 24
19	Michigan	114	April 24
20	Virginia	114	April 24
21	Florida	114	April 24
22	Nebraska	113	April 23
23	Colorado	12	April 22
24	Indiana	112	April 22
25	Georgia	112	April 22
26	Kansas	112	April 22
27	North Carolina	111	April 21
28	Oregon	111	April 21
29	Arizona	110	April 20
30	North Dakota	109	April 19
31	Kentucky	109	April 19
32	Texas	109	April 19
33	Delaware	109	April 19
34	Utah	108	April 18
35	Missouri	108	April 18
36	Iowa	108	April 18
37	Louisiana	107	April 17
38	South Carolina	107	April 17
39	New Hampshire	107	April 17
40	Arkansas	107	April 17
41	West Virginia	107	April 17
42	Idaho	106	April 16
43	Montana	106	April 16
44	South Dakota	106	April 16
45	New Mexico	105	April 15
46	Tennessee	104	April 14
47	Oklahoma	104	April 14
48	Mississippi	103	April 13
49	Alaska	102	April 12
50	Alabama	101	April 11
*	District of Columbia	129	May 9

The pie chart (above) shows where the money Americans earn will go: We will work longer to pay taxes this year (116 days) than we will to pay for food, health care and transportation combined (112 days).

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