Our friend, Karin Maloney Stifler of True Wealth Advisors, posted an interesting site on her blog that helps answer the question, "Where do my tax dollars go?". We thought we'd pass it along.
By clicking on http://www.whitehouse.gov/taxreceipt you can learn how much you personally contributed to various Federal programs and services. You'll need three pieces of information: Your actual 2010 Social Security tax, Medicare tax and Federal Income tax paid last year, all of which you can find on your 2010 return.
Personally, I found it interesting to see how my actual tax dollars were allocated. I was pleased to see my biggest contribution was to the national defense - in my case about the monthly cost of a higher end German automobile. About twice this amount then goes to what could generally be viewed as wealth transfer payments.
On an all in basis, my federal taxes each month are likely a tad higher than my mortgage payment which, of course, includes my local property taxes. This means that federal taxes alone are my highest monthly expense item, which is likely the case for most tax payers.
After you've looked at the site, feel free to send me your comments!