Where does my tax money go and why don't I get a say in how it's spent?

So I just finished calculating what I paid in federal tax last year - $39,500!! And honestly I'm kinda mad about it because I have absolutely zero idea where this money actually goes. If I spend even $50 at a store I get a detailed receipt, but hand over tens of thousands to the government and... nothing? I want to know exactly how my tax dollars are being used. Are they going to things I actually support? Things I don't? I feel like I should at least get an itemized statement showing the breakdown of where MY money ends up. Basically everything else I purchase in life comes with transparency about what I'm buying. But with taxes I'm just supposed to hand over a huge chunk of my income without any say in how it's used??? Why can't I choose which government programs my taxes support? Like what if I strongly disagree with certain spending priorities? Shouldn't I have some input since it's literally my money they're taking? The whole system feels so backwards to me.

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18 comments

Oliver Schmidt

•8M

The government actually does provide a breakdown of federal spending that shows where tax dollars go! The federal budget is public information, and you can find detailed reports from the Congressional Budget Office, Treasury Department, and other agencies. In general, about 25% of federal spending goes to Social Security, 25% to healthcare programs (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.), 15% to defense/military, 8% to interest on the national debt, and the rest spread across transportation, education, veterans benefits, foreign aid, and other programs. Your specific $39,500 would be distributed roughly according to those percentages. If you want to see it visually, the National Priorities Project has a "tax receipt" calculator where you can enter your tax amount and it shows approximately how your money was allocated across different categories.

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Oliver Schmidt

•8M

The tax system isn't set up for individual allocation because it's designed to fund collective priorities determined through representative democracy. Your input comes through voting for officials who align with your spending priorities. While some countries do have limited taxpayer allocation options for small portions of tax (like Hungary allowing 1% to charities), the vast majority of government budgets worldwide work through elected representatives making decisions. The complexity of modern governments with thousands of programs would make individual taxpayer allocation extremely difficult to implement effectively.

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Javier Torres

•8M

I totally get your frustration. I was in the same boat last year - paid over $30k in taxes and had no clue where it went. After digging around, I found this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that actually breaks down your federal tax dollars by category. It analyzes your tax return and gives you a personalized report showing exactly how YOUR tax money was distributed across different government programs. It was eye-opening to see that about $9,800 of my money went to Social Security, $7,500 to healthcare programs, $5,200 to defense, etc. The tool even shows smaller categories like how much went to NASA, national parks, and foreign aid. Not the same as choosing where it goes, but at least it gave me transparency I never had before.

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Javier Torres

•8M

Yes, it definitely works for self-employed people! The tool handles all tax situations including Schedule C filers. It actually gives some additional insights for self-employed people about how your self-employment taxes get allocated specifically to Social Security and Medicare. As for accuracy, you're right that federal budgets are complex, but the tool uses official government spending data from the Treasury Department and CBO. It's not tracking your specific dollars (no one can do that since money is fungible), but it's calculating the proportional allocation based on actual government spending reports. It's as accurate as possible given public data.

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QuantumLeap

•8M

Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai since I was skeptical when I first commented. I decided to try it out of curiosity and was honestly surprised. The breakdown was way more detailed than I expected - it showed exactly how much of my taxes went to veterans programs (something I care about), environmental protection, education, etc. What really hit me was seeing how little actually goes to things people often complain about. Like I found out less than $50 of my taxes went to PBS/NPR funding, but almost $6,000 went to interest on the national debt. Really changed my perspective on government spending debates! Not the same as choosing where your money goes, but at least now I understand what I'm paying for.

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Malik Johnson

•8M

If you're upset about where your tax money goes AND you have issues to bring up with the IRS, I highly recommend Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was fighting with the IRS for months about a tax issue and could never get through on the phone - always on hold for hours then disconnected. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in less than 15 minutes! You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was able to talk to someone who finally explained why I was being charged penalties and got it resolved. Saved me almost $2,000 in incorrect penalties. While it doesn't tell you where your tax money goes, at least it helps when you have issues with your tax return.

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Malik Johnson

•8M

It's definitely not a scam! The way it works is they use technology to continuously dial the IRS for you and navigate the initial phone tree. When they get through the long wait, they connect the call directly to you. You're talking to the actual IRS, not some third party pretending to be them. The reason everyone doesn't use it is simply because it's relatively new and most people don't know about it yet. I was skeptical too, but when you've been trying to reach the IRS for months with no success, you get desperate enough to try anything. I was shocked when it actually connected me to a real IRS agent after trying for so long on my own.

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Ravi Sharma

•8M

Ok I need to publicly admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it, I had a tax notice about supposedly underreporting income and owed $4,200. Called IRS for THREE DAYS straight, never got through. I reluctantly tried Claimyr and got connected to an IRS agent in about 12 minutes. The agent pulled up my file and found the issue immediately - they had double-counted one of my 1099s. Issue resolved in one call. Still wish we had more say in where our tax money goes, but at least there are tools to deal with the IRS when problems come up.

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Freya Larsen

•8M

Voting absolutely matters, but you need to look beyond just the presidential race. Congressional, state and local elections have huge impacts on how your tax dollars are spent. In fact, a much higher percentage of your state/local taxes go to things that directly affect your daily life. You're right that there's bipartisan agreement on some big spending categories, but there are still significant differences in budget priorities between parties and individual candidates. The key is getting involved in primaries and supporting candidates who align with your spending priorities. Democracy isn't a spectator sport - it requires active participation beyond just complaining.

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