What is Tax Freedom Century?

The Tax Foundation has long calculated Tax Freedom Day, which illustrates the percentage of each year the U.S. economy works to fund government at all levels.

But what about “Tax Freedom Century”? That is, what part of the 20th Century did the U.S. economy work to fund the rapid expansion of government that took place during that period?

We did the math, and the answer may come as a surprise. It turns out Americans worked nearly one-third of the 20th Century to fund government—including two world wars, the Korean War, Vietnam, the New Deal, the Great Society and countless other local, state and federal government programs.

Overall, Americans spent 30.1 percent of the years between 1900 and 1999 working to pay Uncle Sam as well as state and local governments. As shown below, the exact moment of “tax freedom” last century fell around noon on February 5th, 1931.

With the powers of compounding, it is astonishing to think today of what a small reduction or increase in that figure could have meant to the cumulative effect on national output today.

“How Many Years Did the U.S. Economy Work to Pay Taxes During the 20th Century?”

Here is the breakdown of America’s total tax burden for the full 20th Century:

Total taxes as a percentage of national income: 30.1 percent

Number of days in the 20th Century required to pay total taxes: 10,986 days

Number of years in the 20th Century required to pay total taxes: 30.1 years

Exact date and time of “tax freedom” for the 20 th Century: 12:00pm , February 5, 1931

Judging from the tax burden of last century—when overall spending was far lower than that of current governments—we’ve likely got a long way to go until “tax freedom” in the 21st century. For more on the official Tax Freedom Day, see here.