Taxes: The Melancholy Month

U.S. taxpayers last week greeted April with understandable melancholy. By the 17th of the month (the 15th falls on Saturday this year), they must part with something near and dear to each of them—money. This year, according to the Tax Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit study group, the average American family will fork over $3,300 to federal, state and city tax collectors. That is $269 more than the median family in come in 1947. Overall, the foundation predicts, U.S. individuals and companies will hand out $203 billion, better than double the amount of fiscal ’56.