April 9, 2026
National Priorities Project's annual Tax Receipt shows how your individual income taxes were spent.
As Americans file their tax returns in the midst of an affordability crisis and escalating attacks on communities at home and abroad - including a new Middle East war- we deserve to know where those tax dollars are going.
This year’s tax receipt shows where your tax dollars went in 2025, the year on your tax return. This means they don’t yet show the effects of the administration’s war on Iran, which began in February 2026, or the administration’s request for a $1.5 trillion war budget in FY 2027 - a huge increase from $1 trillion this year.
Tax Day materials do not include corporate taxes or the individual payroll taxes that directly fund Social Security and Medicare. To read more about where federal revenues come from, visit Where the Money Comes From.
In order to do this analysis, we separate federal funds from trust funds. Federal funds include the revenue from personal income taxes, and they can be used for many purposes. In contrast, trust funds, generated from sources such as payroll taxes, can only be used for specific programs like Social Security and Medicare.
We analyze federal fund outlays, or spending, for the fiscal year most closely corresponding to the tax year, as reported by the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB). In some cases, we use additional federal government data sources, noted below.
When OMB publishes federal budget data, it uses categories of spending called functions, and within those, subfunctions.
In order to create our Tax Day materials, federal fund outlays were sorted into the following categories based on those subfunctions:
Elementary, secondary, higher and vocational education.
Subfunctions: 501, 502, 503
Example programs:
○ Pell Grants
○ Special Education
○ Title I grants to disadvantaged public schools
Natural resources and environment, conservation, and supply and use of energy.
Subfunctions: 271, 272, 274, 276, 301, 302, 303, 304, 306
Example programs:
○ Environmental Protection Agency
○ Rural Clean Water Program
○ Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Agriculture and nutritional assistance programs.
Subfunctions: 351, 352, 605
Example programs:
○ Agriculture Disaster Relief Program
○ SNAP (food stamps)
○ National School Lunch Program
Federal judicial and litigative activities, commerce, overhead costs of the federal government.
Subfunctions: 371, 372, 373, 376, 752, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 808, 809
Example programs:
○ U.S. Postal Service
○ Supreme Court and federal circuit courts
○ Senate and House offices & staff
Housing assistance and credit, community development, disaster relief, and services supporting social needs.
Subfunctions: 371, 451, 452, 453, 506, 604, 925
Example programs:
○ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
○ Community Development Block Grants
○ Head Start
Annual interest paid on the national debt, net of interest income received by assets the federal government owns.
Subfunctions: 901, 902, 903, 908, 909
Diplomatic, development, and humanitarian activities abroad.
Subfunctions: 151, 153, 154, 155
Example programs:
○ State Department (except foreign military aid)
○ U.S. Agency for International Development
○ Peace Corps
Federal law enforcement, immigration enforcement, criminal legal system, and prisons.
Subfunctions: 751, 753, 754
○ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
○ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) & Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
○ Federal Prison System
Health care programs and services, and occupational and consumer health & safety.
Subfunctions: 551, 552, 554, 571
Example programs:
○ Medicare
○ Medicaid
○ National Institutes of Health
General science research and space flight research and activities.
Subfunctions: 251, 252
Example programs:
○ NASA
○ National Science Foundation
Income security programs, federal employee retirement and disability, and job training.
Subfunctions 504, 505, 601, 602, 603, 609, 651
Example programs:
○ Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
○ Emergency Unemployment Compensation
○ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Development and support of air, water, ground, and other transportation.
Subfunctions: 401, 402, 403, 407
Example programs:
○ Highway Traffic Safety Grants
○ Grants-in-aid for Airports
○ Aviation Security
Health care, housing, education and income security for veterans.
Subfunctions: 701, 702, 703, 704, 705
○ Veterans’ Administration
The Pentagon (Department of Defense), nuclear weapons activities, war costs, and international military aid.
Subfunctions: 051, 053, 054, 152
Example programs:
○ Department of Defense (Pentagon)
○ Nuclear weapons in the Department of Energy
○ International Security Assistance
In addition, the receipt shows how much of your taxes went to particular programs within each of those categories, using data from OMB’s Public Budget Database or other sources, as follows:
Department of Education: Includes outlays under Education subfunctions for Agency "Department of Education" (Agency code 018), except for one account: "Federal Direct Student Loan Program, Negative Subsidies" (Agency code 018, Account code 278110). Ongoing reversals (and re-reversals) of student loan forgiveness policies have led to budget adjustments in this category that are not reflective of actual spending patterns.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Includes outlays under Education subfunctions for the Agency "Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
Environmental Protection Agency: Includes outlays under Energy & Environment subfunctions for the Agency, “Environmental Protection Agency.”
Energy efficiency & renewable energy: Includes outlays under Energy & Environment subfunctions and the Agency “Bureau of Energy Programs” for the Account, "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy."
School Lunch & other food programs: Includes under Food & Agriculture subfunctions for the Account, “Child Nutrition Programs.” Includes school lunch, school breakfast, summer meal programs, and more.
SNAP (food stamps): Includes outlays under Food & Agriculture subfunctions and “Bureau of Food and Nutrition Service” for the Account, “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.”
Postal Service: Includes outlays in Government subfunctions under the Agency “Postal Service.”
Medicaid: Includes outlays under Health subfunctions for Account "Grants to States for Medicaid."
Medicare: Includes outlays under Health care subfunction 571, "Medicare."
Mental Health & Substance Abuse: Includes outlays under Health subfunctions for Bureau "Substance Use And Mental Health Services Administration."
Department of Housing and Urban Development: Includes outlays under Housing & Community subfunctions for the Agency “Department of Housing and Urban Development."
FEMA - Disaster Relief: A sum of outlays under Housing & Community subfunctions for the Account "Disaster Relief Fund.”
Diplomacy: Includes outlays under the subfunction 153, “Conduct of foreign affairs.”
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): Includes outlays for International Affairs subfunctions under the Bureau "Agency for International Development." Also includes Climate Aid.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Includes outlays under Law Enforcement subfunctions for the Bureau "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
Customs and Border Protection (CBP): Includes outlays under Law Enforcement subfunctions for the Bureau “U.S. Customs and Border Protection."
National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Includes outlays under Science subfunctions for the Agency, “National Aeronautics and Space Administration.”
Federal Aviation Administration: Includes outlays for Transportation subfunctions under Bureau "Federal Aviation Administration."
Public Transit: Includes outlays for Transportation subfunctions under Bureau "Federal Transit Administration."
Transportation Security Administration (TSA): Includes outlays for Transportation subfunctions under Bureau "Transportation Security Administration."
Child Tax Credit: Includes outlays for Unemployment and Labor subfunctions for Account, "Payment Where Child Tax Credit Exceeds Liability for Tax.”
Low Income Home Energy Assistance: Includes outlays for Unemployment and Labor subfunctions for Account, "Low Income Home Energy Assistance.”
Outlays under Veterans subfunction for the Agency “Department of Veterans Affairs.”
Aid to foreign militaries: Includes outlays under subfunction 152 (International security assistance).
Military Personnel: Includes outlays under Militarism subfunctions for the Bureau, “Military Personnel.”
Nuclear Weapons: Includes outlays for subfunction 053, “Atomic Energy Defense Activities.” It does not include expenses for nuclear weapons delivery systems in the Department of Defense.
Pentagon Contractors: Includes all contracts awarded by the Department of Defense in FY 2025, according to USASpending.gov, as of April 7, 2026.
Iran Bombing in 2025: Estimated costs of U.S. military operations in and against Iran that began in June 2025, according to Brown University's Costs of War. This does not include costs of the U.S. war on Iran that began in February 2026.
To generate average taxes paid for the U.S., we use data from the IRS. The most recent U.S. individual data are for 2023.
The average total income tax for all taxable returns from 2023 is inflation-adjusted to 2025 dollars.
