Where Your Federal Tax Dollars Go
Enter the federal income tax you paid last year. This tool splits it across the major federal spending categories using FY2025 outlay shares, so you can see roughly how your contribution maps onto the federal budget.
Tip: this is on your IRS Form 1040, line 22 (“total tax”). Not sure? The median U.S. household pays roughly $12,000 in federal income tax.
How this works
The split is based on the federal government's FY2025 outlay shares across major OMB superfunctions (the same data behind the homepage budget chart). Your federal income tax is allocated proportionally to those shares. It is an illustrative breakdown of overall federal spending, not an exact accounting of your specific dollars: federal spending is funded by income tax, payroll tax, corporate tax, and borrowing together, so no single taxpayer's dollars are earmarked to a category. See the methodology for sources, and the guide on where federal money goes for the full picture.