For Immediate Release: Or save for tax filing
deadline stories on April 15th!
Taxpayers this year have something even more than
religious holidays and spring to celebrate this coming weekend.
According to the Washington-based Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day 2004
for the United States of America is Sunday, April 11th.
Of course, in Massachusetts Tax Freedom Day comes
over a week later, on April 18th. Our date is the fourth-latest in the
nation this year. But we are doing a bit better than last year, when we
were second-latest in the country on April 19th, and much better
than in 2000, when we were fourth-latest on May 2nd. We’re happy that
CLT’s income tax rollback helped move our date.
The Tax Foundation has been tracking federal, state
and local taxes for the last 66 years. According to its website, www.taxfoundation.org,
"Tax Freedom Day is the day when Americans will finally have earned
enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year. Every dollar
that’s officially called income by the government is counted, and
every payment to the government that is officially considered a tax is
counted. Taxes at all levels of government are included, whether levied
by Uncle Sam or state and local governments."
Most Mass. liberals refuse to voluntarily pay more to
the state
Those who might wish for a Tax Freedom Day that
extends into the summer are missing their opportunity to contribute
through CLT’s voluntary tax check-off on their state income tax form.
Our concept for tax volunteerism, which was adopted by House Republicans
and supported by the Legislature in its FY2003 budget, gives opponents
of our 2000 income tax rollback a chance to pay at the old 5.85 percent
income tax rate instead of the present 5.3 percent.
The 1,055,181 voters who opposed our rollback
asserted that they "didn’t need or want it," and we made
sure that they didn’t have to take it either. As of today, April 7th,
only 579 taxpayers have chosen the higher rate and paid an additional
$62,239. Many more apparently needed and wanted a tax cut than voted for it.
Capital
Gains tax hike
By the way, yesterday’s SJC decision to require the capital gains
tax hike that passed in May of 2002 – despite the
1994 quid pro quo deal that provided a 55 percent legislative
pay hike in exchange for the capital gains tax
cut – to take effect on the first day of January in
either 2002 or 2003, should not take effect at the earlier date. A
commonwealth that is trying to attract businesses and investors should
never be caught doing retroactive tax rate hikes, thereby sending the
message that you can’t make intelligent decisions in Massachusetts
because we keep changing the rules – moving the goal post after
you’ve punted.
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