Where My Taxes Go

CalculatorTax year 2026FY2025 spending

Your federal tax receipt

Enter your pay. We estimate your federal income tax and the Social Security and Medicare tax taken from your paycheck, then itemise what that money paid for, from what the federal government actually spent in FY2025.

Filing status
Tax year
How to split

Your estimated federal tax

$13,408

17.9% of your pay: $7,670 income tax and $5,738 Social Security and Medicare tax. That is $516 a paycheck (every two weeks).

Your largest line: Social Security, $4,650. Defense gets $1,254.

Where My Taxes Go

Federal tax receipt · tax year 2026

Single · $75,000 wages

You paid

  • Federal income tax$7,670.00
  • Social Security tax (6.2%)$4,650.00
  • Medicare tax (1.45%)$1,087.50
Total$13,407.50

17.9% of your pay

It paid for (FY2025 spending)

  • Social Security$4,650.00
  • Medicare$2,450.65
  • Health and Medicaid$1,338.77
  • Interest on the debt$1,327.12
  • Defense$1,253.66
  • Income security (SNAP, SSI, EITC)$959.53
  • Veterans$515.83
  • Roads and transportation$199.41
  • Environment and parks$120.78
  • Law enforcement and prisons$116.50
  • Disaster relief and communities$115.61
  • Education and job training$94.63
  • Agriculture$67.48
  • Foreign aid and diplomacy$61.78
  • NASA and science$57.56
  • Running the government$49.62
  • Energy$28.57

Inside those lines

  • Medicaid$913.79
  • SNAP (food stamps)$140.29
  • FEMA$85.63
  • NIH medical research$64.75
  • NASA$33.61
  • USAID$32.39
  • Border Patrol and CBP$29.04
  • ICE$14.63

Payroll tax goes to Social Security and Medicare, as the law directs; income tax is split over all other spending. Estimate: wages only, standard deduction, no credits. Spending: Treasury, FY2025.

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How your tax was worked out

Wages$75,000
Standard deduction (single, 2026)−$16,100
Taxable income$58,900
10% on $12,400 ($0 to $12,400 of taxable income)$1,240.00
12% on $38,000 ($12,400 to $50,400 of taxable income)$4,560.00
22% on $8,500 ($50,400 to $105,700 of taxable income)$1,870.00
Federal income tax$7,670.00
Social Security tax: 6.2% of $75,000$4,650.00
Medicare tax: 1.45% of $75,000$1,087.50
Total federal tax$13,407.50

Brackets and standard deduction: IRS. Payroll tax rates: IRS Publication 15. Wages only; no credits.

Programs inside your receipt

Selected programs within the budget lines above, and what your income tax put into each. They are not added to the total.

ProgramFY2025 spendingShare of spendingFrom your income tax
Medicaid grants to states$668.1 billion9.29%$914
SNAP (food stamps) benefits + admin$102.6 billion1.43%$140
FEMA disaster relief and more$62.6 billion0.87%$85.63
NIH medical research$47.3 billion0.66%$64.75
NASA$24.6 billion0.34%$33.61
USAID paid out$23.7 billion0.33%$32.39
Border Patrol and CBP$21.2 billion0.30%$29.04
ICE immigration enforcement$10.7 billion0.15%$14.63
Federal prisons Bureau of Prisons$9.1 billion0.13%$12.49
Aid for Ukraine paid out$6.8 billion0.09%$9.24
National parks National Park Service$4.8 billion0.07%$6.54
Aid for Israel paid out$3.3 billion0.05%$4.53

Receipts by salary

Single filer, 2026 rules, FY2025 spending. "To defense" and "to interest" are from income tax (payroll tax goes to Social Security and Medicare). Open a salary for its full receipt.

SalaryIncome taxPayroll taxTotalRateTo defenseTo interest
$20,000$390$1,530$1,9209.6%$63.75$67.48
$30,000$1,420$2,295$3,71512.4%$232$246
$40,000$2,620$3,060$5,68014.2%$428$453
$50,000$3,820$3,825$7,64515.3%$624$661
$60,000$5,020$4,590$9,61016.0%$821$869
$70,000$6,570$5,355$11,92517.0%$1,074$1,137
$75,000$7,670$5,738$13,40817.9%$1,254$1,327
$80,000$8,770$6,120$14,89018.6%$1,433$1,517
$90,000$10,970$6,885$17,85519.8%$1,793$1,898
$100,000$13,170$7,650$20,82020.8%$2,153$2,279
$125,000$18,734$9,562$28,29622.6%$3,062$3,241
$150,000$24,734$11,475$36,20924.1%$4,043$4,280
$200,000$36,734$14,339$51,07325.5%$6,004$6,356
$250,000$51,304$15,514$66,81826.7%$8,386$8,877
$500,000$138,134$21,389$159,52331.9%$22,578$23,901

How the receipt is built

The tax. We treat the amount you enter as wages. Federal income tax is the 2026 (or 2025) bracket schedule applied to wages minus the standard deduction. Social Security tax is 6.2% of wages up to the wage base; Medicare tax is 1.45% of all wages plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax above $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly). Credits (child tax credit, EITC), itemized deductions, pre-tax 401(k) and health contributions, self-employment tax, investment income and state taxes are not included, so your real bill can be lower or higher.

Where it went. The receipt uses what the federal government actually spent in FY2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), by budget function, from the Monthly Treasury Statement. Shares are of the positive function totals ($7.19 trillion); two negative lines (offsetting receipts, and Commerce and Housing Credit) are netted out of spending and cannot be a share of a tax bill.

By law vs pooled. Social Security and Medicare tax are not general revenue: the law credits them to the Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance trust funds. The default receipt follows that: your payroll tax goes to Social Security and Medicare, and your income tax is split across every other part of the budget in proportion to spending (Social Security benefits are paid from the trust funds, so none of your income tax is assigned to them). The pooled view instead spreads every tax dollar over all spending. Both are estimates: about a fifth of federal spending in FY2025 was paid for by borrowing, not taxes, and money is not tracked dollar by dollar.

Programs. The lines "inside" the receipt are selected programs that sit within the budget functions. They are not added to the total. Agency lines are Treasury net outlays (Table 5); SNAP is USDA's total program cost; aid for Ukraine and Israel and USAID are disbursements recorded on ForeignAssistance.gov.

Questions and answers

Where do my federal taxes go?
On a $75,000 salary (single, 2026) you pay about $13,408 in federal tax. By law, the $4,650 Social Security tax and $1,088 Medicare tax go to those programs' trust funds. The $7,670 income tax is spread over the rest of the budget: the largest parts are health and medicaid ($1,339), interest on the debt ($1,327), defense ($1,254), using FY2025 spending.
Does my income tax pay for Social Security?
Almost none of it. Social Security benefits are paid from its trust funds, which are financed by the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax (matched by employers), income tax on benefits, and interest on the funds' Treasury bonds. That is why the default receipt assigns your Social Security tax, not your income tax, to Social Security. Switch to "Pooled" to see the simple proportional split instead.
Is this my exact tax bill?
No. It estimates tax on wages with the standard deduction and no credits. Child tax credits, the EITC, pre-tax retirement contributions, itemized deductions and other income all change the real figure. Use your own Form 1040 line 24 (total tax) for an exact receipt: enter the wages that give that tax, or read the percentages.
Why does the government spend more than it collects?
In FY2025 federal spending was $7.01 trillion and revenue $5.23 trillion; the gap was borrowed. Your receipt splits what you paid; the borrowed part is not on it. See the federal deficit page for the history.

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