Paul L. Caron
Dean





Friday, March 4, 2011

Senators Introduce Taxpayer Receipt Act

Receipt Senators Scott Brown (R-MA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) have introduced The Taxpayer Receipt Act of 2011

Under this bipartisan legislation, every taxpayer who files an income tax return would receive an itemized receipt – similar to a grocery store receipt – from the IRS that lists where their payroll and income taxes are spent.  The receipt would include key categories such as the interest on the national debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, national defense, education, veterans’ benefits, environmental protection, foreign aid – and, last but not least, Congress.

Taxpayers also would be directed to a website where they could get more detailed information on programs not included on the one-page receipt.  Additionally, the receipt would provide taxpayers with the amount of debt per American – which currently is more than $45,000.

On the private sector front, Google is pushing a similar project its Data Viz Challenge showing people how their tax money is spent via WhatWePayFor.com.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2011/03/senators-introduce.html

Congressional News, Tax | Permalink

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Comments

I like this

Posted by: [email protected] | Mar 5, 2011 9:26:18 AM

I'd rather they let me attach a checklist to my tax return to allocate my taxes to the programs that I support, and it wouldn't be the same as the 50% of the people whom Obama is using for his class warfare to spread the wealth. But, I'll take the "receipt" in the meantime.

Posted by: Woody | Mar 4, 2011 4:17:21 PM

Keep the receipt. Send us the cost of the new would be agency created to process, print and oversee the new law.

Posted by: Craig | Mar 4, 2011 4:04:23 PM

While I certainly agree with the spirit of the proposal, the standard instructions for Form 1040 already include a pie chart that purports to show how taxes paid are spent.

Posted by: Jake | Mar 4, 2011 3:45:32 PM