Tax Day is not just a deadline — it’s a ritual
Why April 15 is so much more than a bureaucratic deadline
Bringing you this special edition of Democracy is Hard in honor of Tax Day AKA My Tax Dollars Day. My new book is out!
People preparing to become U.S. citizens are given a list of 100 civics questions and answers to study for their naturalization exam.
One of those is, “When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?” The answer, of course, is April 15. The vast majority of Americans know this.
But isn’t that strange? April 15 is, to the untrained eye, merely a bureaucratic deadline.
No other bureaucratic deadline is considered important enough to be included in the 100 pieces of information we ask new citizens to memorize. The only other dates included on this list are:
1787 (When was the Constitution written?)
July 4, 1776 (When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?)
July 4 (When do we celebrate Independence Day?)
November (In what month do we vote for President?)
April 15 is included in this list because it is more than a bureaucratic deadline—it is a civic ritual known to most Americans as “Tax Day.”
Tax Day is less cinematic than other rituals of civic sacrifice, lacking the pomp and circumstance surrounding Independence Day (with its fireworks) or Election Day (with its “I Voted” stickers), but it is no less significant.
Political scientist Vanessa Williamson refers to filing an income tax return as “an annual ritual that shapes Americans’ understanding of tax policy writ large” and a practice so recognizable that it “reaches the status of Americana.”
Tax law scholar Lawrence Zelenak observes, “April 15 can and should be as important a civic holiday as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Together, the two days celebrate the fulfillment of the two great responsibilities of citizenship.”
The filing of the income tax return offers an opportunity to mark this achievement. Riffing on Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s famous quip, “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization,” Zelenak calls for greater recognition of how filing an income tax return constitutes a “Purchase-of-Civilization Ceremony.”
Rituals do not have to be celebratory or even enjoyable to be meaningful. Just ask anyone who fasts during Ramadan or gives up something for Lent—sometimes the meaning is found in the effort itself. And well, filing a tax return is nothing if not effortful.
Like it or not, Tax Day is a highly visible part of America’s national “liturgical cycle.” Like religious calendars, our civic calendar is marked by stretches of mundane time punctuated by sacred observances. Despite Tax Day’s potential unpleasantness, this shared experience produces a rare moment of collective attention and commiseration, of recognition by Americans of all stripes that we are all at least in some small way in this together. Death and taxes are our shared fate.
This ritual also, at least in principle, provides an opportunity for Americans to reflect on their duty as taxpayers and become more cognizant of how much they are paying and also what they are receiving in return for their payment.
This is a question of both whether they are getting good value for their money and whether government spending aligns with their values.
This year, there is much to reflect on.
Under the guise of protecting our tax dollars from waste and fraud, the current administration is taking a sledgehammer to many effective and efficient policies and programs that taxpayers’ dollars have built over decades.
They are also dismantling efforts to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness of the IRS itself, making it easier for people with complex finances (mostly the ultra-wealthy) to shirk their tax responsibilities while leaving the rest of us holding the bag. Many Americans recognize this, and have expressed angst at having to hand over even more tax dollars this year.
Tax Day is an annual opportunity to reflect on this arrangement. Beyond Tax Day, too, so are public debates about taxation and budget policy that emerge throughout the entire year.
Whether through protests in the streets, letters to the editor of local newspapers, or quieter conversations with friends and families, these are opportunities to consider what citizens owe their government and vice versa; to consider what citizens owe one another; and to assess whether our current tax system is set up to honor those relationships as we understand them. These are opportunities to debate different visions of how this should work, and to hold our leaders accountable. And it is an opportunity to collectively celebrate what we have accomplished together, and how much work is left to be done.
Taxpayers may not receive a sticker when they file their taxes, as voters do when they leave their polling place on Election Day. But marking Tax Day nonetheless offers taxpayers an annual opportunity to recognize an important source of our power and a key way we are bound together as members of the national community. Let’s not let it go to waste.
My Tax Dollars is out!
How does something as dull as taxes stir people to such passion?
My new book, My Tax Dollars, (out today!) helps decode Americans’ complex and contradictory feelings about this seemingly mundane bill we all pay.
What better day than Tax Day to pick up a copy? Get yours now.
P.S. This song, “I Paid My Income Tax Today” was written by the hit song-writer Irving Berlin and donated to the Treasury Department to help raise tax revenue to support the war effort during WWII.