Find Out Where Your Federal Payroll Tax Dollars Are Going
Posted on Tue, Apr 19, 2011
Do you know what percentage of your payroll tax dollars is devoted to national defense? How about health care?
Now that your 2010 taxes are all done, you can see where your hard-earned payroll tax dollars are actually being spent. The White House has created the 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt right on their website.
It takes just a minute to
plug in your personal payroll tax numbers from your return: your Social Security, Medicare, and income tax amounts. The tool calculates what portion of your payroll taxes -- by percentage and dollar amount -- go to fund federal programs and services in categories such as defense, health care, jobs and family security, etc.
If you’ve already filed your income tax return away for the year, you can still get a rough idea of where your payroll taxes are going. Choose your income level from a dropdown menu, and the tool can estimate your contribution to the various spending categories.
Expanded menus on the site itemize federal spending in terms of particular programs. A pie chart also tells how the government arrived at the numbers in the Federal Tax Receipt.