Where Did Your Tax Dollar Go?

Yesterday was T-Day – Tax Day.

If you hadn’t already sent in your tax returns, yesterday was the deadline to turn them in to the IRS (except for residents of Boston because of the horrible bombings at the marathon).

For the 49% of Americans who actually pay income taxes, you should know where and how your taxes are spent.

Romina Boccia and Curtis Dubay write for The Heritage Foundation, April 15, 2013:

Click image to enlarge

As the above infographic shows, 45% or almost half of all spending went toward paying for Social Security and health care entitlements. Without reforming these massive and growing programs, Washington will have to borrow increasing amounts of money, piling debt onto younger generations and putting the nation on a dangerous economic course.

Some other things to know about taxes:

• Not only must we pay confiscatory taxes, we also pay to prepare our tax returns! According to the federal Taxpayer Advocate in its 2012 report, Americans’ cost of complying with today’s complex tax code totaled $168 billion in 2010. That’s almost as large as the impact of the Obama tax hikes in fiscal year 2013, and twice the size of sequestration this year [see chart].

• It takes taxpayers 6.1 billion hours—or 51 hours per household—to complete all the required filings. That’s more than 6 full 8-hour working days per household!

• Federal govt spends way more than it takes in. In 2012, Washington collected $20,000 in taxes for every household in America. But Washington spent nearly $30,000 per household.

• Government overspending, in turn, means an ever-increasing national debt, now $16.629 TRILLION and increasing with every ticking second. That, in turn, means 6% of every tax dollar goes to pay just the interest on our national debt.

• Americans pay high taxes as it is, and with the 13 tax increases that hit this year, tax revenue is growing beyond its historical average as a share of the economy. But Washington’s deficits continue, because spending keeps going up.

• It will get worse because of the tax increases from the fiscal cliff deal and from the Unaffordable ObamaCare. Taxpayers will start seeing these costs when they do their tax returns next April and in future years.

Growing government spending threatens current and future taxpayers with higher taxes. Congress should reduce spending and prevent any more tax increases. Congress also needs to reform the tax code so it is less of a burden on the American people.

Learn more at savingthedream.org.

See also “US taxpayers spent 2422% more on Obama than Brits on the royal family,” Sept. 28, 2012.

~Eowyn