A receipt for your taxes

last updated 8 January 2015

The White House last week unveiled the Federal Taxpayer Receipt, an online calculator that allows taxpayers to get a penny-by-penny breakdown of how their 2010 federal income taxes and Medicare and Social Security payments are allocated among more than three dozen government functions, from military operations and equipment (10.5 percent) to retirement funds for former railroad workers (0.5 percent).

Some lawmakers are pushing for this kind of transparency to become mandatory. A group of House members last week proposed a Taxpayer Receipt Act, which would require the IRS to send all taxpayers an annual breakdown of how their taxes are spent.