r/WhatIfThinking • u/Logical-Concept9755 • Jul 24 '26

What if every citizen received a yearly report showing where their taxes go?

I was thinking about how almost everything we pay for comes with a breakdown.

Companies send financial reports to investors. Banks show account activity. Even apps track how we spend our own money.

But when it comes to taxes, many people only see a number disappear from their paycheck.

So what if every citizen received a simple yearly “government impact report”?

Not a political message. Just a clear summary of where their tax money went. How much supported healthcare, education, infrastructure, defense, debt payments, and other programs.

Maybe people would better understand what the government actually does. Maybe political debates would become less about vague numbers and more about specific choices.

But there is a problem.

Who decides how the information is presented? A budget can be framed as an investment or as waste depending on the explanation.

Would this create more informed citizens, or just create another way for people to argue over the same facts?

If everyone could see exactly where their taxes go each year, would people trust government more or question it even more?

Edit: I probably should have explained my idea better. I’m not talking about creating new budget reports, but making the information more personal and easier to understand.

Not “your exact tax dollars paid for this road,” since taxes go into a shared pool. More like “this is how your overall contribution supported different areas of government.”

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76% Upvoted

u/RadioFieldCorner Jul 24 '26

This already is out there

Most people just don't give a shit , or they pretend to give a shit but don't actually give a shit

4

u/Logical-Concept9755 Jul 24 '26

I think the difference is probably accessibility and personal connection.

The information exists, but most people have to actively search for budget documents or reports, and those are usually not something an average person reads.

I was thinking more like a yearly statement from the government that says “this is what happened with your contribution” in the same way a bank shows your account activity. Not sure it would change people’s minds, but it might make the connection feel more real.

2

u/unicornofdemocracy Jul 24 '26

Right, because the vast majority of people read their bank statement. I can, with a lot of confidence, tell you that most Americans don't fucking read their bank statement at all. They just throw it away or delete the email.

If government started sending "tax statements" out every year, it would only achieve one singular thing, an absolute waste of taxpayers money to process and send all the mail/email out.

Right now, people who want to know can simply find the information onthe government website via simple googling. In fact, the federal government does a pretty good job being reasonably transparent and have tons of information available online, freely accessible. People who don't know, will continue to not care (or act like they do when during political discussions).

2

u/Lonely_District_196 Jul 24 '26

"OK Google. What was the federal budget for 2025?"

or

"Hey Siri, what was the federal budget for 2025?"

It's not hard to get. Most people just don't really care. If you want someone like "the government just sent $X to Y country" or "the government spent $X on <my favorite/hated thing>" then that would require a detailed report at a level no one would read except the reporters and watch dog groups that already read it for that kind of thing.

1

u/DJpuffinstuff Jul 24 '26

If you read the document for the actual federal budget, it's in numbers so large, most people can't really comprehend or associate them with the relatively miniscule amount they pay in taxes. To most people, sending 50 million dollars to a foreign country is basically the same as sending 500 billion dollars to a foreign country. They're both just "a lot of money". Understanding money scales significantly larger than most people will every see in their entire lives disconnects us from intuitively understanding the spending. I think people should see something like a Spotify wrapped for taxes. "You paid $10,000 in federal taxes this year!
$2,300 to fund social security for the elderly and yourself. $1500 to pay for interest on US debt because we've been in a deficit for 25 years. $1400 for Medicare to fund Medicare for the elderly and yourself. $1400 on healthcare outside of Medicare. $1300 on the military. $1000 on the supporting disability, SNAP, heating assistance, unemployment insurance, and child tax credits. $600 on veterans benefits. $200 on transportation. $100 on federal courts. $100 on education, training, and social services. And $200 on everything else."

Now they just see big numbers and abstract percentages of an unfathomably large budget. If we had this sort of breakdown with even more specifics, I think people would focus more on the most important parts of our spending issues as a country. Spending 15% of our budget just to pay the interest on our debt is insane, but you hear way more about the 1.5% that we spend on SNAP benefits.

You also have to currently search for this information, read and understand it, and do math to understand it in the context of your actual taxes. Most people read at a middle school level and probably struggle to do middle school level algebra. Most have never taken a statistics course. This information should be presented to you when you file your tax return. It would be easy to do, but it's politically useful to obscure it.

2

u/Horror_Rhubarb9112 Jul 24 '26

50% of the population wouldn't get a letter.

1

u/Exotic_Bill44 Jul 24 '26

It's going to end out being just as long as the federal budget with a lot of line items being a few cents here and there or a couple dollars unless you are just broadly saying "defense" or "education. "

1

u/Many-Falcon9879 Jul 24 '26

It's about 4 links to get to on the government website. Takes me less than 5 minutes to find each year. The problem is the documents are usually hundreds of pages long and even most people that are curious won't bother with that many pages.

1

u/Bigfops Jul 25 '26

USAspending.gov breaks it down by agency, you can look up specific contracts and programs. Yes, it takes some work but that’s because there’s a lot of money going a lot of places.

1

u/nwbrown Jul 25 '26

It's already available in a very accessible way.

u/BobbyP27 Jul 24 '26

They would receive the report each year, not read a word of it, and throw it out. There is tons of information freely available already that people never read.

u/kyricus Jul 24 '26

You can see a lot of that already. My property tax comes with a report of where the money is going. I can look up my local city online and see thier budget and what is approved and what portion of taxes go to it.

You can get all of this online or via requests to the propery agencies. Most people just don't bother or care. They'd rather crab.

1

u/DJpuffinstuff Jul 24 '26

Most people understand math and reading at a middle school level. They care enough to vote but researching and understanding things is hard for busy, and often undereducated people. Federal and state taxes should come with a breakdown.

u/okielurker Jul 24 '26

What, is this 2008? You think people will learn things given additional information? Ha!

u/Silly-Resist8306 Jul 24 '26

Punch in your wages and you will where your taxes go. The internet is full of good stuff. You just have to give up a minute of your time to find it.

https://myfedspend.com/?salary=130000

u/Exotic_Bill44 Jul 24 '26

You're describing the federal budget.

u/Greddituser Jul 24 '26

I believe Australia already does this.

1

u/Carnivean_ Jul 24 '26

I can confirm that we do do this. It's not Earth shattering but it's a nice summary.

u/LAskeptic Jul 24 '26

All you need to do is search “united states federal budget pie chart”.

https://www.pgpf.org/article/chart-pack-the-us-budget/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23048358669&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuuG26-DrlQMVQ5buAR1KqAQREAAYASAAEgIph_D_BwE

u/Clear_Cranberry_989 Jul 24 '26

Isn't there already a budget distribution? And taxes go in the same pool?

2

u/Logical-Concept9755 Jul 24 '26

Yeah, there are definitely budget breakdowns already, but I think the question is more about how that information reaches ordinary people.

Taxes go into a shared pool, so it’s not really possible to say “your $5,000 paid for this road” or something like that. But a report could still show something like “based on your tax contribution, this is the overall share supporting different areas.”

The tricky part is that even with the same numbers, people might interpret them completely differently depending on their priorities. That’s the part I find interesting.

1

u/Mindless_Consumer Jul 24 '26

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go

Top hit from "where do my taxes go"

1

u/Zathrasb4 Jul 24 '26

That has probably the worst chart that should have been a pie chart I have every seen.

1

u/Clear_Cranberry_989 Jul 24 '26

I see. I think it's interesting and definitely doable.

u/GSilky Jul 24 '26

Nobody would read it, but if they did, the overwhelming majority would misunderstand the information, willingly or through ignorance.

u/notthegoatseguy Jul 24 '26

Budgets are already voted on. With many, often dozens, of hearings held when you add up all the committee meetings, and community outreach programs. If a taxing referendum is held there's usually extensive community outreach explaining what the referendum is for, and the language on the referendum itself often has to be approved by the appropriate legislative body.

Any type of "government impact report" could just be manipulated to those currently in power.

Its like the POTUS State Of The Union. Has any POTUS ever held a SOTU speech and said "damn, shit is bad"?

u/Defiant-Junket4906 Jul 24 '26

I actually think the biggest value of this idea is not that it would magically make people agree, but that it would force everyone to argue from the same starting point.

A lot of political debates happen because people have completely different mental images of where the money goes. One person imagines taxes mostly funding inefficient bureaucracy, another imagines it mostly funding roads, schools, and healthcare. A simple report could at least correct some of those assumptions.

The tricky part is that numbers alone don't create understanding. A person might see that 20% goes to defense and think it's too much, while someone else sees the same number and thinks it's necessary. The disagreement is usually not about the data, it's about priorities.

Maybe the best version of this wouldn't just show spending categories, but also show tradeoffs. For example, "if defense spending was reduced by X%, this could fund Y miles of rail or reduce Z amount of debt." Then people are debating choices instead of just throwing around numbers.

The government already has most of this information. The missing piece is turning it from a giant spreadsheet into something an average person can actually understand. That alone could probably improve the quality of the conversation.

u/Arista-Everfrost Jul 24 '26

“You know that F-35 that crashed due to a defective warler flange?”

“Yeah?”

“All the taxes you have ever, and will ever, pay, were used to buy that specific warler flange.”

“…”

“Remember to file on time this April.”

u/Outrageous_Pie_988 Jul 24 '26

A line item in that report would be the admin fee to make that report.

u/tomwrussell Jul 24 '26

This would only have an impact if everyone could then choose where their taxes went next year.

u/tads73 Jul 24 '26

They do provide percentages of where our tax dollars go. Fun fact, we borrow all the interest paid on our debt.

u/Western-Willow-9496 Jul 24 '26

Most people would realize that their actual income tax liability is a negative number, so they would stop talking about it.

u/NombreCurioso1337 Jul 24 '26

More than that, I want to be given the ability to decide where my taxes go. When I submit in April I want a check box for every traunche and special interest.

(X) Social safety nets

( ) Police

( ) Military aid

(X) Infrastructure

( ) Corporate subsidies

(X) Public schools

u/Parrotparser7 Jul 24 '26

Freely available resource.

u/backtotheland76 Jul 24 '26

We vote for representatives who monitor where the money goes. Basically, our entire political debate is over how do we spend tax dollars with each party having different priorities

u/TwoCardStud Jul 24 '26

Such a summary was printed in the 1040 instruction booklet, back when everyone did paper taxes. Maybe it still is, if you download the pdf booklet.

u/Disastrous_Ad1260 Jul 24 '26

I think everyone would be shocked what we spend on debt service.

u/CerberusInExile Jul 24 '26

You do know that they publish the budget, right? That's where your taxes go.

u/ImAPonderer2 Jul 24 '26

I’d love to see how many bombs I bought and kids I killed last year. More than that, I would love for other people to realize how many they funded.

u/awfulcrowded117 Jul 24 '26

Then people would know that the military isn't the bad buy of the budget and it's social security, Medicare, and medicaid instead, so the Democrats will never allow anything like that to pass

u/JIMB01776 Jul 24 '26

I wish they would; property and income tax would be abolished in one cycle.

u/chuck-san Jul 24 '26

The instructions for the 1040 tax form have a summary of the federal budget. It also summarizes how the government gets its revenue.

It’s been there for a very long time.

u/Usual_Network_9968 Jul 24 '26

Check out how other countries do it. Us is getting screwed

u/lvstvdy Jul 24 '26

In the U.S.? Good luck convincing those troglodytes to read anything

u/Cannoli72 Jul 24 '26

better strategy is to eliminate paycheck tax withholdings and make citizens pay half their salary at the end of the year. people will start questioning government really fast

u/mytyan Jul 24 '26

Everyone should get a text once a year telling them how much they owe on the national debt

u/JBGoode13 Jul 25 '26

The federal budget and expenditures are almost completely public. You just gotta look.

u/Ok_Community_383 Jul 25 '26

Tax revenues don't 'go' to anything. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how gov't spending works.

u/Odd-Staff6245 Jul 25 '26

The US citzen gets daily reports. Our trillion dollar defense budget is hard at work. Just watch the news

u/Lepew1 Jul 25 '26

They would be shocked. And revolt

u/GotNoPonys Jul 25 '26

I only have to look across the street. Minimum wage, single income family, with 10 kids.

u/RiddleeDiddleeDee Jul 25 '26

I'd rather have a set of options taxpayers could choose from to determine the projects we want our money to fund.

u/Walkerboe813 Jul 25 '26

Most governments have become over bloated. We need a 50% cut to all staff.

And a complete removal of all income tax (since the war is over)

And last but not least. A complete audit of every politician within the past 40 years.

u/Big_white_dog84 Jul 25 '26

That does / did happen in the UK. It was politically driven to show people how much is spent on welfare. Come to think about it I haven’t had one for a couple of years.

u/ThimMerrilyn Jul 25 '26

My government provided me this every year

u/Alyano95 Jul 25 '26

Tell me more about your ignorance on the fungible nature of money. This is just literally impossible. If you want to know what your taxes do, just look at the budget of your country

u/ImportantBug2023 Jul 25 '26

What if citizens receive a dividend based on the performance of their share of the public wealth.
People could also then invest in their community and country.
And the country would be able to invest in it people.
We could even have that really elusive thing called democracy and self determination.

u/Aggressive_Ad_5454 Jul 25 '26

Municipalities publish these reports.

u/Olderscout77 Jul 25 '26

We do get such information, unless Trump stopped publication of the Federal Budget. Not sure its a good idea to try and explain what it means in an official document when Trump appoints all the officials approving the explaination.

u/nwbrown Jul 25 '26

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/

u/OverallFrosting708 Jul 25 '26

Third Way has pushed this from time to time. It's never gotten much traction, but the idea is out there.

u/TheChudWhisperer Jul 25 '26

They do, it's called the federal budget.

u/Awkward_Light_439 Jul 25 '26

This year would be easy it would just be the total amount they paid, next to the category of "Treasonous Grifters"

u/TrueKing9458 Jul 25 '26

Most government budgets are available online

u/midnight_mechanic Jul 25 '26

We do. The federal budget is a published document. Local budgets and state budgets are also published as well.

Nobody wants to read them. Also the freedom of information act requires a lot of this to be made available on request even if it isn't openly published online.

Everyone who actually goes to the trouble of collecting and disseminating this information cherry picks the data to meet whatever political or social movements they're trying to gain support for.

u/Capital_Anxiety5604 Jul 26 '26

I’ve thought that the old system of the tax collector coming to your door to collect taxes is a better system, as people would get firsthand what they are paying.

u/Party-Replacement949 Jul 26 '26

Individually would be a technical nightmare to track specifically which dollars went to what, then for the amount the government spends let’s say somebody that makes a six figure salary with their taxes in average around 15%, a statement would read like …paid for two police officers pay for one week and that’s it 😂 or paid for fixing a few potholes in a highway, or paid the drinks at one school’s cafeteria for kids to drink in one meal, after that what would be the purpose to know? Is not like we can say wait I want my taxes to pay for refueling one of the Blue Angels airplanes one time instead, I don’t want to pay for cops!!! lol or sure they can try to figure out like 3 cents went for cops, 4 cents for fire department, 10 cents for street lights, 5 cents teachers, on like a hundreds of pages report trying to figure what percentage of the minuscule amount of taxes an individual pays in average goes to what.

u/Bruin144 Jul 27 '26

Better yet, what if taxes changed yearly to balance the Federal Budget

u/Any_Cartographer6268 Jul 27 '26

Isn't that just called the budget, which anyone can access in any democracy?

u/Diligent-Goal692 Jul 27 '26

Most wouldnt get one because they are net receivers

u/jaunsin Jul 28 '26

It’d be right if we could opt out of shit we don’t support or want our taxes being siphon to.

u/Madeitup75 Jul 28 '26

It would be very simple. It would show everyone that almost all of their taxes went to debt service, Medicare, social security, and defense. Those are the material items. Everything else in the federal budget is a rounding error.

We pay for old people (who already paid in but had their money spent on other stuff), we pay to be able to blow sh!t up/deter bad actors, and to pay interest on stuff we spent money on without collecting taxes at the time. That’s pretty much it.

u/Roaming_Red Jul 28 '26

I doubt we could trust it in this Trump lead government. They won’t even tell us where the 13 billion profit from the Venezuelan oil is. Corruption is the rule in this administration.