Tax Day coming up on Tuesday, April 18. Taxpayers who end up requesting an automatic six-month extension will have until Oct. 16 to file. Tax Day was first introduced in 1913, when the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified. This Amendment gave the United States Congress the legal authority to tax all incomes.
The reason tax day isn’t April 15 this year is because that date falls on a Saturday. Typically, the next business day after April 15 is tax day, which would be Monday, April 17 this year. But that date is also the District of Columbia’s local holiday, Emancipation Day, which the IRS observes and closes.
73% of taxpayers think the government doesn’t use their taxes wisely. Tax Day can be a painful reminder of how much we have to invest in federal, state and local governments.
Federal income-tax rates are uniform across the nation, yet some states receive far more federal funding than others. This begs the question of whether people in high-tax states receive superior government services. Likewise, are low-tax states more efficient or do they receive low-quality services?
As Hoosiers, do we get a good return on our investment?
WalletHub aimed to answer that question by contrasting state and local tax collections with the quality of the services residents receive in each of the 50 states within five categories: Education, Health, Safety, Economy, and Infrastructure & Pollution.
Out of the 50 states, for ROI, Indiana scored at number 29. So, the answer could be, no, not really. For overall government assistance programs Indiana ranked at number 18. Indiana’s best category went to education (14) with health (31) being the worst. Safety and economy both scored in the middle with 20 and 18, respectively.
According to WalletHub, red states offer a better return on investment than blue states.
| States with Best Taxpayer ROI | States with Worst Taxpayer ROI |
| 1. New Hampshire | 41. New York |
| 2. Florida | 42. Louisiana |
| 3. Alaska | 43. Oregon |
| 4. South Dakota | 44. Vermont |
| 5. Texas | 45. Connecticut |
| 6. Missouri | 46. Delaware |
| 7. Virginia | 47. Arkansas |
| 8. Georgia | 48. New Mexico |
| 9. Ohio | 49. Hawaii |
| 10. Wyoming | 50. California |
Other major findings from the study include:
- Tennessee has the lowest proportion of major roads in poor or mediocre condition, 14.00 percent, which is 5.4 times lower than in Rhode Island, the state with the highest at 75.00 percent.
- Maine has the fewest violent crimes per 1,000 residents, 1.09, which is 7.7 times lower than in Alaska, the state with the most at 8.38.
- North Dakota has the lowest infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births, 2.77, which is 3.4 times lower than in Mississippi, the state with the highest at 9.30.
You can find Indiana tax forms here.
