Tax Freedom Day 2011

When do you stop working for the Government and start to earn for yourself?

Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the year, when people in the country have finally earned enough income to pay for just their contribution of taxes. Remember taxation is involuntary and enforced with civil and criminal prosecution - so the average person just has to do as they're told and hand over the money over (under threat).

After all taxes are essential! Maybe less is going towards the healthcare system, already poor council services and education - including cutbacks for nurses, police officers and teachers BUT it appears that it is necessary to still fund illegal Wars, private corporation bailouts, Royal weddings and refurbs to Downing Street (that's right £680,000 of taxpayer money this year is being spent by the PM. Source: www.dailymail.co.uk)

Didn't you know - the austerity cuts only apply to you the taxpayer!? How ironic!


So when is Tax Freedom Day?  30th May 2011 (for Brits)

United Kingdom
Britons will stop working for the government and start working for themselves on 30th May 2011.
That means they will work for 149 days to pay their taxes in 2011 wit every penny earned taken by the taxman to support government expenditure (see above).

Apparently this is 3 days more than in 2010 due to the fact the government has raised VAT, in an attempt to help reduce the UK’s record budget deficit.

“The government is right to give priority to cutting spending and plugging the deficit. But as Tax Freedom Day shows, Britons are still desperately overtaxed. The fact that we spend almost five months working for the State – and only seven months working for ourselves and our families – is a shocking indictment of big, wasteful government.” - Tom Clougherty, executive director of the Adam Smith Institute


Find out more about how taxes work and how you can avoid working 5 months for the Government.
Every man has the right to manage his affairs in order to minimise and avoid tax, it is his duty to do so.

Note: Tax avoidance is legal, whereas tax evasion is illegal.

"Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes." - Judge Learned Hand

At least Tax Freedom Day falls on a Bank Holiday, so enjoy it with a drink in your and know that the rest of the Year belongs to YOU!  (Just don't wonder what the tax duty paid on the alcohol is funding)


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United States of America

In the USA Tax Freedom Day for the country was 12th April 2011.

Tax Freedom Day varies among the 50 U.S. states, as incomes and state & local taxes differ from state to state so much that Mississippi was the first to celebrate its Tax Freedom Day on 26th March, just 85 days into 2011. Connecticut was the last, having to waiting till 2nd May, 122 days into 2011.

The Tax Foundation says this shift toward a lower tax burden since 2007 has been driven by three factors:
The recession has reduced tax collections even faster than it has reduced income.
The Bush-era tax cuts were extended in December 2010 for two additional years.
As part of the tax-cuts extension, the Making Work Pay tax credit was replaced with the 2 percent reduction in the payroll tax.
But even with today's tax reductions, the Tax Foundation says Americans will pay more in taxes in 2011 than they will spend on groceries, clothing and shelter combined.

"America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation." - Laurence J. Peter

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Worldwide Tax Comparison

Many other organizations in countries throughout the world now produce their own "Tax Freedom Day" analysis. Due to the different ways that nations collect and categorize public finance data, however, Tax Freedom Days are not comparable from one country to another.

Tax Freedom Days for countries by date 

Country	Day of year	% burden	Date of year
India	74	20.0%	14 Mar
United States	99	26.9%	9 Apr
Australia	112	30.7%	22 Apr
Estonia	114	31.1%	24 Apr
South Africa	132	36.0%	12 May
Uruguay	133	38.6%	13 May
Hungary	140	38.0%	20 May
New Zealand	141	39.0%	21 May
Spain	141	39.0%	21 May
Slovakia	142	38.8%	22 May
Lithuania	124	34.0%	5 May
Bulgaria	147	40.0%	27 May
Brazil	147	40.0%	27 May
United Kingdom	150	40.9%	30 May
Canada	157	42.6%	6 Jun
Belgium	159	43.3%	8 Jun
Croatia	161	43.7%	10 Jun
Czech Republic	161	44.1%	11 Jun
Israel	173	47.4%	22 Jun
Poland	174	47.7%	23 Jun
Slovenia	174	47.8%	24 Jun
Germany	190	51.7%	8 Jul
France	197	53.6%	16 Jul
Sweden	200	55.0%	20 Jul
Norway	210	56.7%	29 Jul

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Freedom_Day for full details

Does shelter think all landlords are Rogues?

Scams involving Landlords. Shelter really do a good job showing 'Rogue' landlords taking advantage of vulnerable (desperate) tenants. With PR like this though, no wonder people think landlords are out to take advantage of tenants and are all unscrupulous. What kind of person would want to rent a property like this anyway, someone vulnerable or someone who didn't care and found it acceptable?

Also, who would stay in one where jobs didn't get done and repairs made at all.

What would happen if this showed how tenants behaved?
Do you think Shelter would be happy with the honesty?

Bad landlords are put on lists at councils and I'm aware of a couple of new sites where you can upload information of bad tenants that could become popular in future, such as www.tenantID.co.uk and www.LandlordsBestFriend.co.uk. Rogue Tenants beware...


I've spoken to many professional and high profile landlords/presenters that don't think Shelter do a good PR job with respect to landlords. After all, who does Shelter think will house homeless people if the landlords don't?




Companies that help people get housing need to work WITH landlords to ensure problems like this don't occur - and they also need to make sure tenants aren't irresponsible either and not protect them when they are clearly abusing a property or the landlord.

Take a look at this facebook page NetRent to see pictures of what Rogue Tenants do to properties. Maybe landlords should make videos showing this!?


If you are a landlord then you can start by making sure you are a good landlord and that your property is fit to rent. Keep up with maintenance and repairs - because groups like Shelter do a lot of negative press for you, it means you have to deliver beyond what someone would expect. But hey, at least it gives you the opportunity to shine compared to those few landlords that may be featured in adverts like this.

It's the minority (on either side) that ruin it for everyone else!
Don't be in the minority and set a good example to other landlords and tenants on how a property business should be run and a home should be looked after.


Also check out the My Property Power Team Fanpage where my articles are featured regularly.

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