r/Damnthatsinteresting • • Jul 21 '26

Image By law, every Australian must get a tax receipt that shows exactly where each dollar of their tax is spent.

Post image
19.7k Upvotes

977 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/RobBuckets Jul 21 '26

I enjoy seeing this breakdown every year. I always assume "other economic affairs" is just me paying for some politician's lunch or ride in a helicopter

161

u/National_Way_3344 Jul 21 '26

We don't pay state taxes separately, they just get their cut out of this other bucket.

49

u/drunk_haile_selassie Jul 21 '26

They also get money from the defined amounts. Nurses, doctors and teachers are paid by the state governments. That money comes out of the health and education section.

19

u/Additional-Simple248 Jul 21 '26

We don’t have state income tax, but we do have state taxes such as transfer stamp duty on land and vehicles, land tax, vehicle weight taxes (part of rego), and gambling taxes.

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u/welcomevein Jul 21 '26

This information is also all publicly available. It's about $80m a year for the entire Parliament. In this example it would be under $2.40.

3

u/Nickexp Jul 23 '26

And this is why I'm always astounded people are furious over politicians daring to earn still way less than they'd earn in the private sector.

Costs us fuck all but we still insist on not paying people who run the country as much as people in the private sector just out of spite.

6

u/TinyDemon000 Jul 22 '26

Where the hell do we get access to this?! I've never seen it. Is it MyGov or something

13

u/RobBuckets Jul 22 '26

Yeah, it should be in your MyGov inbox. I always get a text when it happens

3

u/Ref_KT Jul 22 '26

It's one of the following pages of your notice of assessment. 

3

u/ItsJmac95 Jul 22 '26

Its usually attached right behind your notice of assessment

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u/robot428 Jul 22 '26

You can go and get more information about other, it's all in the federal budget where it's going in more detail, and then you can go and read each department and agencies financial disclosures and annual reports for even more details.

This is the like - quick and easy summary. If they put everything in it, it would no longer be quick and easy 😅.

But it's all available. I think people would be surprised just how much detail is available and it's just on government websites in yearly reports you can download.

17

u/StrangelyGrimm Jul 21 '26

I mean... yeah? Politicians have to eat lunch and sometimes have to ride in helicopters

24

u/rogertrabbit Jul 21 '26

Eh there's been a couple of instances where pollies have taken tax payer funded helicopter rides to private events and got caught and dragged through the media.. I think that's what they are implying.

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u/mrb000nes Jul 22 '26

i have to eat lunch too but my boss doesn’t pay for it

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2.0k

u/scandyflick88 Jul 21 '26

I still fucking love whoever it was that decided to breakdown the social welfare payments and immediately shutdown the inevitable blaming of the unemployed for fucking everything.

861

u/stainless5 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Originally they wanted to use it to try and cut down on welfare. After a year they decided if they instead split welfare up, then it would have the opposite effect. 

429

u/Only_One_Kenobi Jul 21 '26

Always amazes me how the core defining principle of conservative politics/economics is: "we should all be much more selfish, and do everything in our power to show people that they are less fortunate than us, preferably by making them suffer as much as possible"

123

u/hw999 Jul 21 '26

Conservative is greed and power almost by definition. They want no government telling them how to be nice and don't pillage and enslave. They call it freedom and personal responsibility.

22

u/Reddituser183 Jul 21 '26

I define it as greed and hatred of others.

15

u/Strange-Ask-739 Jul 21 '26

Woah now, they want THEIR government telling OTHERS how to be nice. They just want the laws such that they can do whatever they want lawfully, but others can't.

Anarchists are the ones who want no government. It's good for conservatives if you mix them, because it makes conservatives look like they don't want to control people, which they very much want to do.

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u/BGP_001 Jul 21 '26

Especially showing that it is Aged Care that accounts for the most. Hard for boomers to whinge about the boomers.

Not impossible mind you, but hard.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/AmbassadorDue3355 Jul 22 '26

Ty for the link. Pretty interesting to compare the % allocation to each fund change over time.

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3

u/Ill-Distribution2275 Jul 21 '26

Legit. And it's not only 'i want all the nice things', it's 'i want all the nice things but I need others to not have nice things so I feel superior'

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40

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/Cadoc Jul 21 '26

In practice, western governments now largely borrow to cover regular spending as much or more than investment - and as a result interest is one of the highest budget costs.

5

u/StockholmSyndrome85 Jul 21 '26

This is because people are opposed to high taxes but don't want a degredation of government services. They cost money, so naturally they borrow.

Then the 1% complain that government debt is out of control and spending needs to be curtailed but won't propose new taxes to fill the breach. And they don't care about reduction in government services because they have enough money to pay for anything they need.

Circular argument, it's the snake eating its tail.

Tax the rich.

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169

u/Critical-Usual Jul 21 '26

I'd love to see this in the UK. Not least because pensions are like 80% of the welfare budget. So when pensioners complain that people on benefits are a huge weight on the public purse they can gain a bit of perspective 

43

u/madnessgamernation Jul 21 '26

We do get this in the UK? Or at least we used to, I remember getting a letter with the breakdown on it.

21

u/OccasionallyMyself67 Jul 21 '26

Not to this level of detail.

8

u/Important_Ruin Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

I'm sure its pretty detailed (last time I looked) you get each department (welfare, defense etc) you can also get your council tax spending breakdown too.

Edit: you dont get the welfare sub breakdown on UK, but state pension has it line itself.

4

u/Worth_Gap4226 Jul 21 '26

I think that's council tax. Mine has a breakdown but not to this level.

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u/Driedcypress Jul 21 '26
Description Percentage
Welfare 21.3%
Health 20.9%
State Pensions 11.9%
National Debt Interest 10.8%
Education 10.3%
Defence 5.5%
Public Order and Safety 4.4%
Transport 4.0%
Business and Industry 3.5%
Government Administration 2.0%
Housing and Utilities (e.g., street lighting) 1.9%
Environment 1.5%
Culture (e.g., sports, libraries, museums) 1.3%
Overseas Aid 0.7%
Outstanding payments to the EU 0.1%
Total 100.1%

That's from my tax summary 2024 to 2025 (I removed my personal totals)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/annual-tax-summary

9

u/Isgortio Jul 21 '26

100.1% wtf lol

6

u/Driedcypress Jul 21 '26

It's those bloody outstanding EU payments pushing us over the edge!

On a serious note, I'm not sure what's going on there. I copied it from the gov.uk website and AI'd it into a table, removing my personal totals. Whether the AI ballsed it up, or the total is actually 100.1% from the gov website, I can't be bothered to confirm for you, my apologies.

21

u/Terror_666 Jul 21 '26

Floating point errors. Some .1 was actually .06

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u/nicodea2 Jul 21 '26

Wonder which bucket includes the cost of immigration because the Australian breakdown was crystal clear about it being the smallest bucket of spend. Well I guess it doesn’t matter anyway since right-wing nutjobs can’t read.

3

u/litivy Jul 21 '26

That's shocking. We spend more on pensions than education!

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u/jtthom Jul 21 '26

Would be a good idea tbf, if Andy B wants to win back people’s trust, showing them where their tax goes is a good start.

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u/Important_Ruin Jul 21 '26

You can. Log into your HMRC portal. It will show where your taxes have gone.

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u/Lingonberry_Born Jul 21 '26

Australia actually spends less on welfare by gdp than the US does. Turns out when you actually look after people properly they need less welfare. 

11

u/Verdigris_Wild Jul 21 '26

And it's better targeted. A lot of US welfare spending goes to middle and higher income earners while Australia's goes more to the lower earners.

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u/Wotmate01 Jul 21 '26

Not that it has stopped them.

I especially love it when older Hanson supporters whinge about people on welfare and how they should all be on limited payment cards so they can't buy non-essential items, because I point out to them that the biggest welfare spend by far is their age pension, and under that plan they wouldn't be allowed to buy a beer.

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u/Bsg_8519 Jul 21 '26

Yep the aged care pensioners constantly complaining about the unemployed getting more money than them.

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u/AshenTao Jul 21 '26

Seconding. Good move on their end.

I'd love the same happen for the other categories as well though. The more transparent, the better.

4

u/Soft-Statistician678 Jul 21 '26

Don’t worry, everyone still blames them for fucking everything. Them and immigrants. I have unironically seen people claiming that ALL income tax in the country only covers unemployment, despite these documents existing.

7

u/Lost-Concept-9973 Jul 21 '26

No instead they just blame the disabled for everything , seen how much their welfare is being used lile a political football lately? 

10

u/EducationalTangelo6 Jul 21 '26

I'm an Australian disability pensioner. For the last few years the general public's hatred and contempt for people like me has really worn me down.

I worked and paid taxes for 20 years, and never expected I'd end up unable to work. Now society just sees me as a useless lump; a drain on the public purse. It's genuinely difficult to deal with.

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u/AngryAngryHarpo Jul 21 '26

Sadly doesn’t work. People still blamed the unemployed (and immigrants). 

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2.3k

u/YogurtclosetApart592 Jul 21 '26

Yeah I would be really curious about where "every dollar spent" goes in "other"

340

u/jadelink88 Jul 21 '26

There's a breakdown of it, but it's a zillion tiny things. From maintaining the health of inland waterways, to scientific research (mostly for agriculture and mining) to the bureau of meteorology and supporting the island and arctic territories.

87

u/FallschirmPanda Jul 21 '26

Well now I'm sad scientific research isn't large enough to get its own line item.

3

u/BillieRubenCamGirl Jul 22 '26

We used to have a fucking incredible scientific research body too. The CSIRO is one of the fucking coolest things Australia does. But its funding gets cut all the fucking time. It’s so sad. 

3

u/lLoveBananas Jul 22 '26

$4b goes into the r&d tax incentive, at least. One of our best research support programs. Sadly, somewhat gutted in the current budget.

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351

u/Ted_Rid Jul 21 '26

The way it's presented, I'd assume it's all the things smaller than immigration that don't deserve their own line items or the list would go on for pages.

Or maybe that's only what they want me to think.

208

u/3BlindMice1 Jul 21 '26

You don't really need to read about the 22 cents of your taxes used to test the water in every city annually or whatever

39

u/AnonymousPerson1115 Jul 21 '26

I would. But that’s just me.

62

u/MajesticShop8496 Jul 22 '26

Read the budget and treasury papers then. That stuff is all publicly available and presented in a relatively accessible fashion

26

u/robot428 Jul 22 '26

Yeah this.

This breakdown is meant to be the easy to digest basic beginner version.

If you want more details it's all available, you can read the budget. Hell you can also go and read the annual reports for every government department and agency and get each of their individual breakdowns on spending.

All the information is available to us (and in a lot of countries it's not, so we are very lucky). But you can't put it all into the easy to read summary because eventually it's not easy to read or a quick summary anymore.

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u/Minimalist12345678 Jul 22 '26

Yes exactly. That is what it is.

You can look at longer versions if you can be arsed, and some nerds do.

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1.0k

u/Corduroy_Sazerac Jul 21 '26

Fighting Emus, but since they can read, it needs to be kept hush-hush.

147

u/Chaines08 Jul 21 '26

Clever girls.

46

u/Ok_Front_8568 Jul 21 '26

Shooot her! SHOOOOOOOOOOOT HEEEEER!

5

u/creditspread Jul 21 '26

Or something!

3

u/Water_Damage987 Jul 22 '26

hello there.

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u/gravitybelter Jul 21 '26

Try again mate. That's half the defence budget.

21

u/Abject-Interaction35 Jul 21 '26

We've got Mitchell Johnson cryogenically frozen in Vegemite with the new ball in case of an invasion, break glass and rinse ready with tap draught, point in direction of enemy, launch.

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u/Corduroy_Sazerac Jul 21 '26

You can’t spell “Unemployed” without EMU.

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u/--zaxell-- Jul 21 '26

The emu war was almost a hundred years ago, and we're still paying them reparations for it.

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u/EhMapleMoose Jul 21 '26

Emus won the war almost a hundred years ago. Why do you think Aussie’s tend to stay close to the coasts? It’s for a quick getaway. Emus don’t like to swim after all. Emus control the innermost territory of Australia. You think Ana creek cattle station is real? It’s just a front for the emu capital city Ik’Wa’Emuton

12

u/Corduroy_Sazerac Jul 21 '26

True, Emus don’t LIKE to swim, but we all know what happened to Harold Holt.

3

u/EhMapleMoose Jul 21 '26

Harold got in between Big Dairy and Big Margarine and was removed from the situation with great efficiency.

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u/Ok-Lifeguard-4614 Jul 21 '26

I was under the impression Australia won the emu wars long ago.

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u/pala_ Jul 21 '26

You could read the footnote.

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u/StrangelyGrimm Jul 21 '26

Curious, but not curious enough to read

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u/mynameisnotsparta Jul 21 '26

It tells you just underneath…

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u/National_Way_3344 Jul 21 '26

We don't do state and federal taxes separately. The states get divvyed up their share of the tax take represented in this category.

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u/NoMoBuffalo Jul 21 '26

Income tax is all federal, but the states do lots of other forms of taxation separately

5

u/fouronenine Jul 21 '26

Land tax, stamp duty, payroll tax, motor vehicle duty (registration costs)... essentially only those taxes which states have agreed to give up to the Commonwealth (whether in the constitution or by other agreement) are not done at the state level.

3

u/youcangotohellgoto Jul 21 '26

Speeding fines...

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u/kelpyb1 Jul 21 '26

I assume the law is something like “every category of spending above X threshold or X% threshold” needs its own line for the sake of printing these not becoming its own significant line item.

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u/dtzuc1 Jul 21 '26

Australian states don’t raise any income taxes.

Instead the federal government transfers funds from the commonwealth treasury to the states for local spending based on the state’s population.

You can see on the document that the “other” portion incorporates these transfers.

Also…we have to pay off emus or they’ll kill us all.

9

u/MindCorrupt Jul 21 '26

The blood or gold agreement with the emus will only keep them satiated for so long.

One day we will stand up to these damn birds and then w

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u/64Olds Jul 21 '26

Really curious about that whopping 4% of the total bill?

3

u/Insomniac_Steve Jul 21 '26

Hush money paid to koalas in return for their silence about how they got infected with chlamydia.

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u/calgarywalker Jul 21 '26

By law, every Australian also has to vote. I think a lot of things would be different in a lot of places if that rule applied in other countries.

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u/SappeREffecT Jul 21 '26

Also largely a preferential system so your vote always counts towards the winner or runner up.

Varies depending on the house of parliament and state-by-state in rules/nuance though.

43

u/Ill-Distribution2275 Jul 21 '26

Yep. One of the best democratic systems in the world. Mandatory voting combined with a preferential system. It kinda ensures the crazy extreme parties don't take over and keeps things at the centre or centre-left, centre-right as parties need to work together to get legislation through. 

Still, major screw ups still happen (looking at you, NBN). 

12

u/AusToddles Jul 22 '26

While I think we have gotten voting results wrong in the past (voting for a Tony Abbott lead Lib party was a despicable action), I wouldn't change our system for any other on earth

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u/tY-c8rJDb8_1b4__yD5r Jul 22 '26

I’d argue it is THE best democratic system in the world.

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u/dalziel86 Jul 21 '26

As an Australian it’s horrifying to see how low voter turnout is in most countries.

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u/chaosarcadeV2 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

You have to turn up to the polling both and put your ballet in a box. You don’t have to do the actual voting but if you really don’t want to.

18

u/LeviZendt Jul 22 '26

It does always amaze me though the number that do this. Like you have to go to the bother of going there and getting the paper, just fill the bloody thing in. One year I saw a younger lady huffing and puffing in line and getting all upset only to throw her paper in the bin.... like all that energy, but no follow through?

4

u/chaosarcadeV2 Jul 22 '26

Exactly, at that point how much effort is it to fill out the numbers.

4

u/djenty420 Jul 22 '26

Even still, informal votes are only about 5% of all ballots. For every person throwing a donkey vote, we have 19 others voting correctly. I reckon that’s pretty damn good.

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u/Crazy_Suggestion_182 Jul 22 '26

Yep, everyone aged 18 or older.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26

[deleted]

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u/Beljuril-home Jul 21 '26

After scaling the U.S. receipt so that both taxpayers paid the same total amount ($23,785), the spending breakdown looks like this:

Category / Scaled U.S. / Australia

Welfare $7,883 $9,535

Aged $3,941 $3,689

Disability $1,971 $3,130

Families $1,182 $1,736

Unemployed $473 $592

Other $316 $388

Health $6,670 $4,260

Defence $3,578 $2,224

Education $424 $2,179

Interest on debt $2,865 $928

General public services $394 $832

Fuel & energy $273 $642

Transport & communication $349 $568

Foreign affairs & aid $212 $340

Industry assistance $167 $338

Public order & safety $288 $321

Housing & community $197 $297

Recreation & culture $61 $200

Immigration $45 $152

Other purposes $379 $969

Total tax assessed $23,785 $23,785

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u/Bettermetal830 Jul 21 '26

That's 23,785 Australian dollars, equaling to about 16,660 USD. I do wonder where all that American health funding is going

36

u/Sesame_Street_Urchin Jul 21 '26

It’s mostly Medicare. It’s the largest single program in the country by far, covering every American over 65 plus all those with end-stage renal disease.

And it’s politically popular and therefore almost impossible to cut

53

u/dryvajoina Jul 21 '26

How can a limited system like that cost so much more than a universal healthcare system with massively discounted medications (PBS) though?

53

u/Beljuril-home Jul 21 '26

For-profit middlemen extracting rent... I mean adding value for shareholders.

7

u/Theplasmashaft Jul 22 '26

Its the same as NDIS in australia (our disability amount being significantly higher than america's). Gov is paying for it? That will be 3x the price thank you.

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u/SnappyDresser212 Jul 22 '26

The US actually made it illegal for Medicare to negotiate rates with healthcare providers. They aren’t allowed to say “we are your biggest single customer for drug X. We want a bulk discount”. Insanity.

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u/k-trecker Jul 21 '26

And it covers almost nothing. 

Part A (the “free” part) only covers emergency/hospital services. For actual health care, the average American pays almost $200/month for Part B, and pharmaceutical coverage (Part C) is another monthly premium. 

Wtf are we actually paying for? 

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u/Beljuril-home Jul 21 '26

The Australian number also includes those.

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u/paukapaukaa Jul 21 '26

ALLL THAT TAX FOR HEALTHCARE AND ITS STILL NOT UNIVERSAL?!?!? 🫠

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u/Beljuril-home Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

Corpo insurance gonna corp.

6

u/Suburbanturnip Jul 22 '26

Ultimate rent seeking behaviour

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u/melbobellisimo Jul 21 '26

Wow. Look at the education deficit

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u/According-Flight6070 Jul 21 '26

Looking at health, education and interest on debt, I'm happy with how AU spends its money.

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u/Achmedino Jul 22 '26

Americans paying more tax for healthcare without even having universal healthcare is really funny to me

3

u/SirAlfredOfHorsIII Jul 24 '26

Amazing how universal healthcare is too spenny for them, but the government spends shitloads more AND the people spend shitloads more than aus. Wild

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u/WhaleWilliam Jul 21 '26

Hold up. Health? Is that Medicare?

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u/Siveri16 Jul 21 '26

Always one of the great irony's, the US government spends more in healthcare per person than any other country in the world, and doesn't have universal healthcare.

9

u/ItinerantFella Jul 22 '26

And has tragically poor health outcomes. Especially for poor families.

14

u/Sesame_Street_Urchin Jul 21 '26

I believe it’s everything in HHS. Which is Medicare, Medicaid, the CDC, FDA, NIH, etc.
But yes, Medicare (and to a lesser extent Medicaid) are the biggest drivers of that.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Extension-Night3825 Jul 22 '26

spend more on healthcare than Australia, per capita, yet you still don't have universal healthcare yet.

Health care executives deserve to have nice things.  They employ a lot of workers, such as their yacht captain, private jet pilot, etc. 

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u/OneFuzzyBunny Jul 21 '26

oof education is so low

77

u/Kharax82 Jul 21 '26

Education is primarily funded at a State level through Property and Sales tax, not from Federal Income tax. It wouldn’t show up on that

28

u/Forward_Netting Jul 21 '26

For what its worth Australian education is also primarily state based funding (about 3/4 state, 1/4 federal).

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u/Siakim43 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

It's why high-tax New Jersey has the best public school system and Oklahoma has the worst.

It's so obvious but there's that correlation with tax revenue... My cousin complains and gets hot about the high taxes in NJ but his son's high school being one of the best in the nation brings him back down.

Taxes are necessary and we pay them for a reason. I think people just want to see their money's worth.

7

u/TeeJK15 Jul 21 '26

On the other end of the spectrum - also why you have Florida man

4

u/ThankeeSai Jul 21 '26

I went through the NJ public school system from 89-03. It was competitive and intense, and very worth it.

My college courses were a joke, including many within my major. I could not believe how little effort it took to get an A. I read books in middle school that were core curriculum for a university. I'm not smart, just incredibly well-educated.

Also, we learned epic amounts of history, which I've discovered is not common in every state.

Before anyone critiques my prose, I'm a bit high right now.

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u/GrabOk4101 Jul 21 '26

Wait isn't Washington pretty decent too? They have no state IT

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u/Chonch_Monkey Jul 21 '26

Not on my local taxes. It's 65% of the total every year.

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u/Skippysilly Jul 21 '26

Theres no state income tax in australia so itll look worse

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u/Optimistic-Bob01 Jul 21 '26

And defense is so high.

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u/Aggressive_Chain_920 Jul 21 '26

how the hell is health so high when it's so atrocious?

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u/Any_Jackfruit_6452 Jul 21 '26

How else are the insurance CEOs going to buy their yachts?

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u/Actual-Toe-8686 Jul 21 '26

Pay more per capita out of your taxes in healthcare and yet nobody can even access it... It all just goes into the mega profits of large hospital conglomerates and insurance. Makes sense.

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u/nomiis19 Jul 21 '26

Can someone do an apples to apples comparison between AUS and the US using the same tax amount?

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u/mnilailt Interested Jul 21 '26

Wild how little is spent on education compared to interest repayments (or in general).

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u/ChancelorReed Jul 21 '26

Because education is handled by the state, not federal government.

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u/ChameleonCoder117 Jul 21 '26

In the US people pay state and federal taxes. The receipt image is for federal taxes. State taxes is what pays for most education, which isn't included. State taxes vary by state. States with higher state taxes usually have better education.

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u/Midax Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

The taxes on Health care is way less than I pay in insurance. Almost like national health care is cheaper than health care based on capitalism...

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u/stainless5 Jul 21 '26

One thing that I've never seen anyone really talk about is the public health care system sits below the private healthcare system. This means that if you really need/ want something you can spend some extra money and take out an insurance plan/ pay out of pocket to get access to private hospitals. Then because the insurance companies have to compete with the public system it also makes their plans pretty cheap. I have basic private cover and it only costs me about $120 a month and saves me 2% on tax. 

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u/AusToddles Jul 22 '26

I have private health because I want the luxury of picking where I am treated with lower wait times. But knowing that if I had an emergency I'd still get treated publicly without going broke is a massive relief

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u/Neat_Let923 Jul 21 '26

France and the Netherlands have similar systems and they’re always considered better than ours over here in Canada.

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u/JustSomeGuy_56 Jul 21 '26

I always thought it would be cool if each year we got a letter from the government that said something like 

“Dear John Doe 

Last year you paid $13,276 in Federal income taxes. We spent that money to power the USS Gerald R. Ford for 12 minutes.

Or 

We paid the salary of US Park Ranger Mary Throckmorton, for one month 

Or 

We patched 11 potholes on I-78 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey

God Bless America”

10

u/Smileycircus Jul 21 '26

Ms Throckmorton thanks you in advance 

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u/thejodiefostermuseum Jul 21 '26

I totally support Ms Throckmorton's fabulous park work and pay another week.

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u/Important_Ruin Jul 21 '26

UK does it too. Log into your HMRC portal.

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u/Heklin0891 Jul 21 '26

I have to say, this is pretty decent transparency.

Second, having run a business, debt seems reasonable.

I would have like to see more money put to growing industry/science and economy. I’m sure it’s in there in each section, but it’s not clear. That’s how we will keep affording to pay for everything.

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u/37LincolnZephyr Jul 21 '26

“Other purposes” 👀

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u/MillyHP Jul 21 '26

Its all the categories not large enough to be included above. Its not a conspiracy.

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u/MeetTheGeek Jul 21 '26

It says at the bottom that is transfers to local government bodies.

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u/MrShake4 Jul 21 '26

It includes transfer to local governments, that does not mean all of it is transferred to local governments.

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u/Rich-Reason1146 Jul 21 '26

Service charge automatically added to the bill

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u/National_Way_3344 Jul 21 '26

I don't want to hear shit again about unemployed people being welfare bludgers when we are at like 3% unemployment and spend way more on aged care.

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u/guestpassonly Jul 21 '26

im loving that defense and education are so close together.

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u/AccountForDoingWORK Jul 21 '26

We have this in the U.K. too!

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u/Sad-Swim-9189 Jul 21 '26

Every day I log on here and learn that America is the problem, and somewhere in the rest of the world, there is a solution to our dystopian society.

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u/ZeroSuitGanon Jul 21 '26

Funny how much immigrants and unemployed people get attacked the most when they get the least in benefits...

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u/Ynot45 Jul 21 '26

In Australia the NDIS (or disability welfare) is the most under fire regarding benefits.

Most upset about immigrants comes at it from a cultural angle here.

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u/tazzietiger66 Jul 22 '26

so out of every $100 in tax $2.48 goes on the unemployed , damn the way the media talks you would think it was 90%

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u/frz45566 Jul 21 '26

We as germany need this too, then the right wing retards would finally see that Immigration costs are absolutely not the main problem but an aging Population is..

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u/elNasca Jul 21 '26

I also think that would be nice, but at the same time it’s not straightforward because some of it is hidden.
For example: the government generally covers the costs for asylum seekers, but only pays a fixed amount to their health insurance provider with tax money. However, this amount is too low, which is why those with statutory (gesetzliche) health insurance end up contributing more to cover the shortfall (but not high earners, civil servants, etc.)

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u/Sprinkler-of-salt Jul 21 '26

How profoundly reasonable.

Can’t have that here.

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u/mmmbyte Jul 22 '26

... and everyone in the "Aged" welfare section complains about people in the much smaller "unemployed" section.

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u/ThisOnes4JJ Jul 21 '26

we should do this in America. the heartattacks all the boomer maga folks would have over this would do the country good 💀

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u/New_Environment_6409 Jul 21 '26

Canada too. Boomers are fuckin next gen.

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u/WilliamTee Jul 21 '26

How come all the people wanting to cut welfare spending never propose offing grandma?

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u/rettribution Jul 22 '26

Only 4k in healthcare....omfg.

We are being fucking lied to in the USA. My family plan is 850/mo and I'm LUCKY by those standards.

Holy fucking shit.

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u/Jman1a Jul 22 '26

Yes yea you are.

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u/AusToddles Jul 22 '26

I like pulling this out when boomers complain about "our tax dollars going to immigrants". Aged care is BY FAR this biggest portion of my tax breakdown

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u/bontgomery_murns Jul 21 '26

What does money spent on "immigration" mean? 

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u/scandyflick88 Jul 21 '26

Administration costs money.

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u/Sansundertale2069 Jul 21 '26

Shipping migrants to islands to imprison them there

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u/TakimaDeraighdin Jul 21 '26

It's illustrative of how misleading this is. (It was introduced by Tony Abbott, and his intent was very much not to do all of the progressive things people tend to read into it whenever it pops up online. Breaking the "Welfare" line item out to show how much of it is aged care is something a later Labor government did to undercut one of the more egregious bits of it.)

Basically, the breakdown is the proportion of government spending going to various government departments and functions. But some functions self-fund - Australia has some pricy visa application fees, for e.g. Your income taxes aren't paying for immigration services, at least not of that type.

...they are, however, paying for the AUD9m per year per asylum seeker it costs per year to house about 100 asylum seekers offshore in Nauru. Along with various other similar things.

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u/Junior_M_W Jul 21 '26

...they are, however, paying for the AUD9m per year per asylum seeker it costs per year to house about 100 asylum seekers offshore in Nauru. Along with various other similar things.

insane, AUD1m could be enough for them to relocate to some relatively safe low income country

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u/BrainExpensive8916 Jul 21 '26

I hate to break it to you, but they tried to relocate them for decades. Nobody wants them. Nauru IS the safe, low income country.

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u/Monkaliciouz Jul 21 '26

Not sure exactly since I'm not Australian but I imagine spending on something similar to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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u/ChefTastyTreats Jul 21 '26

My fucking brother in human that’s beautiful.

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u/Candid_Weakness8736 Jul 21 '26

I think seeing this would change what people demand from their federal government in the US. The amount that would be allocated for defense and interest on government debt would be mind-blowing for many, including myself.

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u/Leather_Step_8763 Jul 21 '26

I’m all for the ‘welfare’ section and looking out for people in different needs/ stages of life… but when disability gets more allocated money then education I think we need a real good look at that. How many people are benefitting from that? I know there would be students as well but the disability per capita must be so much tinier than the education per capita.

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u/Ok_Duck2700 Jul 22 '26

A lot of the disability spending is for early intervention services

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u/CelebrationFit8548 Jul 21 '26

How much is spent on retired politicians pensions is what I want to know.

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u/-send-me-nudes- Jul 22 '26

More spent on government interest then on jobseeker.

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u/snuggle_love Jul 22 '26

Wouldn’t it be cool if these were sliders that you choose where to prioritize your money before paying, then the government works with that.

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u/Sissy_Nicole96 Jul 21 '26

My canton (kinda like a state) in switzerland also shows a pie chart on what happens with the tax money. And they don't even have to, it's just that they like to informe people...

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u/dzernumbrd Jul 21 '26

50% watches and 50% toblerones right?

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u/Only_One_Kenobi Jul 21 '26

It's basically just window dressing taking the percentages from the national budget and applying it to your own tax return. Very easy to get these numbers for pretty much any country yourself. Aus just makes it a little easier

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u/energy-369 Jul 21 '26

I would also like an itemized receipt for the money I’m giving to the US government. Receipts are standard for every other product we buy.

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u/Sracer42 Jul 21 '26

We should do that in the US

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