July 15, 2008
Happy Tax Freedom Day, Israel
by Scott A. Hodge
Happy Tax Freedom Day to our freedom-loving friends in Israel. According to the non-profit Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, July 15th marks the day in which Israeli citizens have finally worked to pay off all of their tax bills and can now begin to work to pay their own bills. Click here for the details.
In case you are trying to do the math, Israelis worked 197 days into the year to pay their taxes, or 54 percent of the year. This is 32 days longer than in Great Britain and 80 days longer than in America.
The good news for Israelis is that this year's Tax Freedom Day is three weeks earlier than last year because of lower economic growth and slightly lower taxes. "Don't get excited," says the Jerusalem Post, "You will still be paying the same percentage of value-added tax and up to a maximum of 47% in income taxes down from 48%."
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