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Published: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 8:01 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 8:01 a.m.

If youre a procrastinator, youre keenly aware that Tuesday is the deadline to file your federal income-tax return.

Its also Tax Freedom Day, signifying the number of days this year its 107 the average American must work just to pay off his federal, state and local taxes.

The Tax Foundation, a national nonprofit watchdog group, makes the calculation each year using the latest government data on income and taxes. Put another way, the average American works from Jan. 1 through April 17 just to make enough money to pay his or her tax bill.

In this years report, economist Will McBride also calculated how long Americans would have to work to close the federal governments $1 trillion budget deficit. It would take Americans until May 14 to earn enough money to pay that bill.

This year, Americans will pay $2.62 trillion in federal taxes and $1.42 trillion in state-local taxes out of $13.86 trillion in income, for a 29.2 percent tax bill, McBride said in a news release. That means taxpayers will pay more in taxes in 2012 than they will spend on food, clothing and housing

combined.

But Louisianans do have a bright side to look at. Tax Freedom Day fell on April 1 this year, tied with Mississippi for second-earliest in the country. Only Tennessee, at March 31, was earlier. Residents of places with earlier Tax Freedom Days have lower tax burdens than their peers in other states.

Historically, the date for Tax Freedom Day has fluctuated.

The latest-ever Tax Freedom Day was May 1, 2000 meaning Americans paid 33 percent of their total income in taxes. A century earlier, in 1900, Americans paid only 5.9 percent of their income in taxes, and Tax Freedom Day arrived Jan. 22.

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La. celebrated Tax Freedom Day earlier than most