Tomorrow, Utahns stop working for the government and start working for themselves for the remainder of 2008. The rest of the country has to wait until Wednesday.

According to a Washington nonpartisan organization, all our earnings for the first 111 days of the year go to pay federal, state and local taxes. Only tomorrow do our salaries start going to our own needs.

Every year the Tax Foundation calculates how much Americans pay in federal, state and local taxes, and then figures out how long we have to work each year to pay.

It's a useful reminder of how hard taxes bite, even as the clever folks at city hall, the state Capitol and in Washington invent ways to keep us from noticing the real costs -- like a pickpocket who distracts you in order to lift your wallet.

The worst gimmick is tax withholding. The government takes your money before you even get it. Some folks actually are pleased as punch when they get a tax "refund." They have been so bamboozled by withholding that they've forgotten that the money was originally theirs, and that the government has been holding it all year, interest free. In other words, we taxpayers give the government a zero-interest loan with each paycheck.

Tax Freedom Day helps people confront the real weight of taxes. Until tomorrow, every buck you made has gone to government. Since Jan. 1, every time the alarm clock woke you up so you could get to work, every time you were stuck in rush-hour traffic going to or from your workplace, every time you felt frustrated or annoyed on the job -- all that was just to pay the government.

So think about that the next time a candidate blithely talks about raising taxes a little here, a little there.

Nor should we get too excited by Utah's Tax Freedom Day being two days before the U.S. average. That seems to say the Beehive State has low taxes. But two days isn't much in the scheme of things: Alaska's is March 29, Connecticut's May 8.

Of the 50 states, Utah's Tax Freedom Day is the 17th highest in the nation, meaning that by this reckoning 33 states let their residents start working for themselves earlier in the year. That suggests the Beehive State's tax burden, relative to its earnings, is heavier than the average.

Some state tax cuts took effect in January, so perhaps next year Tax Freedom Day will take place a bit earlier. Perhaps then you can start working for yourself on April 20 or maybe even earlier.

Nevertheless, hold the toasts. April 21, April 20, even March 29 -- all of it means weeks and weeks of labor just to pay off the taxman.