Enter a few numbers and get an itemized breakdown of the taxes you pay in a year, and what the federal government, the state, your county and your city spend them on.
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Sales tax isn't included yet.
A rough estimate to show where tax money goes, not tax advice. Your actual taxes depend on deductions, credits and other income.
Enter your income to see where your taxes go.
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Each section above lists who decides. The next step is your ballot: see who and what you'll be voting on, check your registration, and find where to vote.
See what's on your ballot ↗Tax money goes into shared pots, so no one can trace your exact dollars. Each line shows your share of what that government spends, in proportion to its budget.
Where you live: the breakdown uses one place, your main home. If you have two homes, each home's property tax goes to that home's local governments, and sales tax goes to wherever you shop. In Indiana, county income tax goes to the county you lived in on January 1.
Tax year: pick 2025 if you're using last year's tax return, or 2026 to estimate this year. The tax math uses that year's brackets, deductions and rates, including local rates that changed partway through 2025 (averaged over the year). Federal spending is that year's actual spending (the federal year runs October to September). State and local spending follows each government's current budget for both years. Budgets usually shift only a few percent from year to year.
Federal: tax brackets and standard deduction for the year you pick, including the extra deductions for people 65 and older, the child tax credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. It assumes you take the standard deduction and have no other income (like interest, dividends or capital gains) or other credits. Up to 85% of Social Security benefits can be taxed, depending on your other income. Self-employment income pays both halves of Social Security and Medicare tax, minus the usual deductions for it. Social Security and Medicare taxes are shown going to those programs. Refundable credits that come back to you as a refund are shown separately, not subtracted from your total. Income tax is split by what the government actually spent on everything except Social Security, which is paid from its own tax, in the federal year you pick (fiscal 2025 or 2026), by area and by program, from the U.S. Treasury's final Monthly Treasury Statement for that year. The government also borrows, so total spending is larger than taxes collected.
Gas: gas spending is turned into gallons using an average pump price for the year you pick, then taxed per gallon. Every gallon includes the 18.4-cent federal gas tax, which goes to the federal Highway Trust Fund for highway and transit grants to states. Gas isn't charged regular sales tax, so leave it out of your shopping.
Kentucky income tax: one flat rate, 4% for 2025 and 3.5% for 2026 (a 2025 law, HB 1, cut it). Kentucky starts from your federal income, leaves out Social Security, and leaves out up to $31,110 a person of pensions, IRAs and 401(k) money. A pension from the federal government, the military, or Kentucky's state or local governments isn't taxed at all for work done before 1998: the page leaves it all out when you check that all of the work was before 1998, and counts it like other pensions otherwise. Then it subtracts a standard deduction ($3,270 for 2025, $3,360 for 2026). The page assumes married couples file separately on one combined return, which gives each spouse a deduction. Credits: $40 for each person 65 or older, and the Family Size Tax Credit, which cancels all of the tax for incomes at or under the federal poverty line for your family size ($15,650 for one person in 2025, $32,150 for a family of four or more) and part of it up to 133% of that line. Kentucky has no state earned income credit. Not included: the child and dependent care credit, the tuition credit and itemized deductions.
Where state taxes go: the 6% sales tax and the income tax go to the state General Fund. They're split by the General Fund budget for July 2026 to June 2027 ($16.6 billion), passed by the General Assembly in 2026 (HB 500). K-12 schools, teacher pensions and colleges are from the Prichard Committee's summary of the final budget. Medicaid, human services and prisons, police and courts are estimated from each area's share of the two-year budget in the state's Budget in Brief.
Local wage taxes (occupational license taxes): most Kentucky cities and counties, and some school districts, charge a percent of wages and business profits. It's owed where you work, so the page assumes you work where you live, and applies the same rate to self-employment profit. Louisville Metro residents pay 2.2% (Metro 1.25%, TARC buses 0.2%, schools 0.75%); everyone in Lexington pays 2.25%, plus 0.5% for Fayette County Public Schools. County rates for all 120 counties are from the Kentucky Association of Counties (January 2025 and 2026); 87 counties charge one. City rates are from the Kentucky League of Cities list of every active city for fiscal year 2023 (the newest we have), where 170 cities, including Louisville and Lexington, report a wage tax. Cities reported their own rates, but some were already a year or two old then, and rates can change, so the page marks these "city rate from 2023 list." Where we found a newer rate in a city's own documents or a tax-change notice, we used it instead: Ashland (2.375% from 2026), Somerset (1.2% from 2026), Walton (new 2% tax in 2026), Bardwell (1% from July 2025), and rates checked on city websites and payroll notices for Louisville-area and other larger cities. In all, 168 cities have a wage tax on this page. A few cities aren't on the League's list, so the page says "city rate not found" there. Small cities inside Louisville Metro (such as Jeffersontown, Shively, Lyndon and St. Matthews) charge their own tax on top of the Metro taxes. Caneyville charges a flat $1 a week instead, which isn't included. Some cities cap the tax at the Social Security wage limit; the page doesn't.
School district wage taxes: from the Kentucky Department of Education's 2026-27 tax levy list. Boone, Marshall, Scott and Warren county schools charge 0.5% on residents, besides Louisville (0.75% for JCPS and Anchorage Independent) and Lexington (0.5%). The tax follows your school district, not your city: the page assumes a city with its own (independent) school district is fully inside it, so Bowling Green and Walton residents don't pay the county schools' tax. Parts of some cities are in the county district. The state's list was still missing 88 of the 171 districts when it was made (September 2026), so a district we don't show may still charge one. 2025 uses the same rates.
City and county taxes together: state law (KRS 68.197) says that in counties of 30,000 or more people, a city wage tax counts against the county's tax, unless voters approved the county tax. Warren, Madison, McCracken and Hardin counties do that; in Boone, Kenton, Campbell and Boyle counties you pay both, and in Louisville Metro, small cities' taxes are added to the Metro taxes. In other counties the page assumes the credit in counties of 30,000 or more and both taxes in smaller ones, and marks the rate "estimated."
Budgets: Louisville Metro is split by its 2026-27 General Fund ($916.8 million) by department, as approved by the Metro Council. Lexington is split by its 2024-25 budget's department shares, the newest detail we could read; its 2026-27 General Fund is about $546 million, with nearly $300 million for public safety. Other cities and the counties are split by what they actually spent, as reported to the U.S. Census Bureau (2022 or 2024), leaving out utilities and other services paid by fees.
Property tax: the amount uses your county's typical rate (median tax divided by median home value, U.S. Census 2019-2023), from about 0.5% in parts of eastern Kentucky to about 1% in Campbell and Kenton counties. It's an estimate: homes are often valued below their sale price, so the official rates below add up to more than most people pay. It's split by the 2025 rates for your own county, city and school district from the Kentucky Department of Revenue's rate book: the fiscal court, countywide districts like the library, health department and extension office, your city, your school district (2026-27 school rates for 2026 where the Department of Education has them), any special district named for your city, and the state (10.6 cents per $100 for 2025, 10.3 for 2026). Outside cities, the page adds a typical fire or ambulance district for the county; yours depends on your address. Louisville includes the Urban Services District (the old city); Lexington includes its urban services (garbage, street lights). Watershed and drainage districts, which tax farmland, are left out. If someone in the household is 65 or older, the page takes off the $49,100 homestead exemption first (you have to apply). Your own bill lists every rate. Not included: the yearly property tax on cars, and the school utility tax on home utility bills.
Kentucky gas tax: the rate is reset each July from wholesale gas prices, plus a 1.4-cent fee for leaking tank cleanup. It was 26.4 cents a gallon (plus the fee) from July 2024 and 25 cents from July 2025; in 2026 the Governor froze it at 25 cents and cut it by 10 cents for about a month from May 11 because of high gas prices. The page uses yearly averages: 25.7 cents for 2025 and 24.15 for 2026. About half goes to state highways; 22.2% to rural secondary roads, 18.3% to counties and 7.7% to cities. Gas isn't charged sales tax. Average gas prices used: $2.90 a gallon for 2025 and $3.63 for 2026 (federal EIA prices for the Midwest, January to October 2026).
Not included: car registration and the 6% motor vehicle usage tax on car purchases, insurance premium taxes many cities charge, hotel and restaurant taxes, and fees in your utility bills.
Kentucky sources: 2025 Form 740 instructions · 2025 standard deduction · 2026 rate and deduction · Family Size Tax Credit table · Sales tax · 2026-2028 Budget in Brief · K-12 budget (Prichard Committee) · College budget (Prichard Committee) · County occupational tax rates 2026 (KACo) · 2025 · Louisville Metro rates · Lexington rate · KRS 68.197 · City rates: Kentucky League of Cities, City Occupational License Tax Rates, FY2023 (PDF, from klc.org) · City withholding rates (USDA NFC) · State property tax rate 2025 · 2026 · Homestead exemption · Kentucky Department of Revenue, 2025 Property Tax Rate Book (every local rate) · Kentucky Department of Education, Tax Rates Levied 2026-2027 (school districts) · Property tax by county · Gas tax (KACo) · Gas tax shares (KLC) · 2026 gas tax order · Midwest gas prices (EIA via FRED) · U.S. Census local government finances · Budgets: Louisville Metro 2026-27 approved · Lexington · Lexington 2026-27
Federal sources: U.S. Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, FY2025 and FY2026 · 2025 IRS brackets · 2026 IRS brackets · Federal gas tax (FHWA)
A married couple with two kids under 17. They earn $80,000 a year from work, spend $25,000 a year on shopping (not counting groceries) and $1,500 on gas, and rent their home. These are their 2026 taxes.
They pay about $12,966 a year in taxes. Here's where it goes.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the debt run on existing laws, so they change only when Congress changes those laws. Most other spending is voted on every year.
An estimate to show where tax money goes, not tax advice. Use the calculator above to see your own numbers.