North Dakotans ‘celebrate’ Tax Freedom Day on April 25

By Rob Port | Watchdog.org North Dakota Bureau

BISMARCK, N.D. — With the deadline for filing income taxes looming, procrastinators may spend their weekends rushing to compile receipts and fill out tax work forms. But even if they get their taxes in by April 15, North Dakotans may be disheartened to learn they’ll be paying their 2014 taxes for another 10 days.

That’s four days later than the national Tax Freedom Day, which is April 21, according to the latest Tax Freedom Day study by the Tax Foundation.

So what is Tax Freedom Day? It is ”the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for year,” according to the foundation, which also calculates a separate date for each state.

North Dakota is tied with Washington state for the ninth- latest Tax Freedom Day in the nation. Some of the state’s neighbors pay off their taxes much earlier. South Dakota has the earliest Tax Freedom Day in the nation, April 4. Montana hits its date April 14, while Minnesota comes a few days after North Dakota, on April 29.

New Jersey and Connecticut are tied for the latest Tax Freedom Day in the nation. The residents of those states won’t be done paying their taxes until May 9.

So how many days do you spend paying off each sort of tax? Here’s a breakdown, according to the study:

• 33 days, federal income taxes
• 27 days, social insurance taxes (Social Security, Medicare, etc.)
• two days, federal excise taxes
• eight days, federal corporate income taxes
• nine days, state and local income taxes
• three hours, state/local social insurance taxes
• 13 days, state/local sales and excise taxes
• 11 days, property taxes
• one day, state/local corporate income taxes
• three days, other state/local taxes

You can reach Rob Port at rport@watchdog.org