Where Does My Tax Go?

Describe your idea:

A website where people can enter the weekly, monthly or annual income tax figure from their pay slip and see a detailed breakdown showing where exactly every last penny goes to.

In addition, it should also be possible to enter a national insurance contribution, VAT figure or any other UK tax paid and see a breakdown of what this amount is paying for.

What problem does it solve?:

Most UK tax payers grumble about the amount of tax they have to pay. They also complain when stories in the media highlight ‘apparent’ wastes of tax payers money.

This website would help to properly inform the ongoing debate on what the money collected through taxation should be spent on, by allowing each individual to see what their own personal contribution pays for.

Type of idea: A brand new project

2 Comments

  1. We developed a site that does most of what you proposed James.

    On wheredidmytaxgo .co .uk, you enter your gross annual income for each year from 2003-2010, your age and sex.

    It will calculate the amount of tax and ni you would be liable to pay for each of those years. It then uses data from the PESA (public expenditure statistical analysis) to get the percentage of central government public spending in each spending area. It divides your payments up into these areas and shows you the total spent from your tax payments as well as an annual breakdown of your contributions.