The folks over at Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform have punched the numbers and figured out, approximately, just how much of that dough spent on Thanksgiving fun is actually being gobbled up by Uncle Sam. Of the $10 billion Americans spend on the holiday — which includes food, wine and beer, gas, and plane tickets — taxes account for 35.86 percent of those expenses, bringing in approximately $3.6 billion in revenue, according to ATR’s assessment. Breaking it down further, ATR reports that of the average $49.20 spent on food for a party of 10, $13.68 of that, or about 28 percent, is going to the government. Of the 53 million cases of beer that are consumed, the government makes $219 million in taxes, which accounts for 44.33 percent of the cost of each case. Finally, when it comes to travel, 45.33 percent of each tank of gas heads to government coffers, along with, on average, 43.57 percent of the cost of an airline ticket, with an average Thanksgiving ticket costing Americans $376.
