• Tax Foundation, Inc., recently announced that May 4 was "tax freedom day" for 1989. Tax freedom day is the day on which taxpayers stop working to pay federal, state, and local taxes and begin working for themselves. Stated differently, the average taxpayer will work 124 days in 1989, or 2 hours and 43 minutes each day, to pay federal, state, and local tax bills. Tax freedom day was February 13 in 1930, April 28 in 1970, and May 5 in 1988. The much-publicized cuts in federal income taxes during the Reagan administration have not resulted in significant retreat in tax freedom day because of substantial increases in social security taxes and state income taxes.