Assemblyman Will Barclay (R,C,I--Pulaski) announced today that New York State’s Tax Freedom Day was Sunday, May 4. Tax Freedom Day marks the date when New York State’s citizens have collectively earned enough money to pay their total tax bill for the year. It is tabulated by the Tax Foundation, an independent think tank specializing in tax policy analysis.

“Tax Freedom Day provides New York families with a dose of much-needed context. It is one thing to talk about tax rates as an abstract policy component. It is another thing entirely to show New Yorkers that they just worked for five months to pay our taxes,” said Barclay. “We need to further streamline government so we can lower taxes across the board. Tax Freedom Day is a powerful illustration of why we need to do just that.”

According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day is computed by dividing total tax collections by income, as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Every dollar that is officially called income by the government is counted, and every payment that is officially considered a tax is counted. The resulting percentage is then converted into days of a 365-day calendar year. For example, the average American will spend 42 days working to pay income taxes. Other taxes such as property, sales, and social security are included to compute Tax Freedom Day. The federal Tax Freedom Day 2014 is April 21, three days later than last year. In 2014, Americans will pay $3 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state taxes, for a total tax bill of $4.5 trillion, or 30.2 percent of income.

New York State has the third-latest Tax Freedom Day in the country. This is largely due to burdensome tax rates.