There certainly are a lot of things that many of us will be looking forward to doing during the weekend.

It’s a pretty sure bet that completing income tax paperwork will not be among them, but, with the deadline of Wednesday quickly approaching, those who haven’t finished that yearly chore will be scrambling to get that wrapped up and submitted to the Internal Revenue Service, the state that you live in and the agency that is in charge of collecting local payments.

Making sure our required obligation to ensure the government can continue to function remains one of the least favorite tasks Americans face each year. And, if you find you are dreading the process to the point that you have been able to procrastinate and wait until the last minute, you are not alone.

According to a recent survey released by WalletHub, 28 percent of those surveyed said they would rather face jury duty than deal with their taxes. It doesn’t stop there — 18 percent said they would rather attend a driver’s ed class, the Washington, D.C.-based personal financial website reported, while 17 percent said they would rather go on a hunger strike.

Five percent of those surveyed said they would rather spend a night in jail — that’s the same number who said they would prefer to drink expired milk.

So, it’s established that many people find paying taxes loathsome. But what are our greatest concerns? The biggest, the survey shows us, is that 32 percent of Americans think they won’t have enough money to pay the taxes they owe, while 31 percent are worried they will make a mathematical mistake. With all of that said, 82 percent of the people surveyed say individuals shoud budget through the year to ensure they can afford to make their tax payments.

Which some people might find difficult to do — 66 percent of those surveyed said their current tax rate is too high, while 31 percent said it was just right. There are even people out there who say they should be paying more in taxes — 3 percent of those surveyed, in fact.

When it comes to residents of the Tri-State Area, most residents don’t do too badly when it comes to looking at the tax burden they face. In a separate survey, Tax Burden by State, WalletHub said Ohio ranks 16th, West Virginia is 18th and Pennsylvania comes in at 24th.

Tax burden, according to WalletHub, is the share of total personal income that residents pay in state and local taxes.

That overall number in Ohio is 9.05 percent, while in West Virginia it is 8.89 percent and in Pennsylvania it is 8.47 percent.

Breaking down those numbers a little more, Ohio’s property tax burden is 9.05 percent (24th in the country), while West Virginia’s number is 2.1 percent (39th in the country) and Pennsylvania’s is 2.59 percent (27th in the country.)

The individual income tax burden in Ohio is 2.62 percent (24th overall), while West Virginia’s is 2.87 percent (13th overall) and Pennsylvania’s is 2.65 percent (17th overall.)

When you look at the total sales and excise burden, Ohio comes in at 3.88 percent (16th overall), West Virginia comes in at 3.92 percent (13th overall) and Pennsylvania comes in at 3.23 percent (34th overall.)

Hawaii has the highest tax burden, while Alaska has the lowest. And, since everything has a political component to it these days, WalletHub has dutifully reported that Blue states have a higher tax burden than Red states.

Waiting for the last minute to file taxes doesn’t seem to carry all the pressure that it did not too long ago.

There always would be a story or two turn up about people who rushed off to their accountant or to one of the chains that prepare taxes, placed a shoe box filled with important-looking documents on the desk and waited for the miracle of a completed return to appear.

And then there was that newspaper staple that appeared in just about every April 16 edition — a photo that was snapped at a local post office, capturing vehicle after vehicle passing through the parking lot, with one person after another handing the envelops that contained their completed returns to postal employees — and no matter how long that line stretched, the postal service was able to get all of those items collected and postmarked by the midnight deadline.

There’s less urgency these days — a greater number of people are now filing their returns electronically, whether they pay someone to prepare that information or do it themselves on one of many different tax preparation programs that are available.

It all adds up to some things to think about this weekend — whether you have already completed filing your returns and are enjoying your refund, or are just getting around to starting the process.

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is senior writer for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)