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.
Free · Nonpartisan · Not affiliated with any government · Nothing you enter is saved
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.
Loading…
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.
Nevada: there is no state income tax. Sales tax is 6.85% everywhere, plus county add-ons (up to 8.375% in Clark County). Cities can't add their own. Of the 6.85%, 2% goes to the state's General Fund and is split by the state's General Fund budget for July 2026 to June 2027, from the Legislature's Fiscal Analysis Division. 2.6% is the Local School Support Tax, which goes into the State Education Fund and is paid out to schools per student statewide. The other 2.25% (the city-county relief taxes) goes to local governments through the C-Tax.
The C-Tax: this money is pooled for each county and shared by a state formula among the county, its cities and its special districts, based on past shares and growth in population and property value. So your share doesn't depend on which store you shop at. For Clark and Washoe counties, the split comes from the Department of Taxation's June 2025 distribution. For the other counties we don't have the split yet, so the whole amount is shown as the county's, even though the county shares it with its cities and districts. Clark County also gives its unincorporated towns (Paradise, Spring Valley, Enterprise and others) their own share, which the County Commission budgets.
Budgets: the county's share is split by the county's General Fund budget for Clark and Washoe (2026-27). Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno and Carson City use their 2026-27 budgets. North Las Vegas uses its 2025-26 budget, the newest we could find. Sparks, Boulder City, Mesquite and the other counties are split by what they actually spent in 2024, as reported to the U.S. Census Bureau. Where we don't have the county's C-Tax split, the whole amount is split by how the county and its cities spend together. That split leaves out water, sewer, trash, electric and gas utilities, transit systems, airports, ports, parking and hospitals, because they're paid for mostly by user fees and fares, not taxes. Lines under 0.5% are grouped into Other services. County sales tax add-ons are shown by the purpose set when they were approved.
Property tax: the estimate of about 0.47% of home value is the statewide average. A homeowner's bill can rise no more than 3% a year, so long-time owners often pay less. The split uses each area's 2026-27 tax rates for Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Reno, Sparks and unincorporated Clark and Washoe. Unincorporated Clark uses the rate for Paradise and the other big towns. Boulder City and Mesquite use Henderson's split. Other counties use Reno's split, so they are rough estimates. Your own bill lists the exact amounts.
Nevada gas taxes: the state gas tax is 23 cents a gallon (17.65 cents to state highways, 5.35 cents to counties), plus less than a cent in fuel cleanup and inspection fees. Counties add 10 cents (5 cents in Esmeralda, Eureka, Lincoln and Storey). Clark and Washoe add voter-approved indexing that goes up each July: about 26 to 30 cents in Clark, and about 53 to 58 cents in Washoe. Average gas prices used: $3.75 a gallon for 2025 and $4.50 for 2026 (federal EIA averages for western states outside California).
Not included: hotel room taxes, the Live Entertainment Tax and business taxes like the Modified Business Tax, which employers pay.
Nevada sources: Dept. of Taxation sales tax components · County sales tax rates · State General Fund (2026 Appropriations Report) · Appropriations Brief 2025 · Pupil-Centered Funding Plan · C-Tax distribution · Local Government Tax Act distribution · Property tax rates (Fiscal Analysis Division) · Washoe County tax rates · DMV fuel tax rates · DMV registration fees and taxes · U.S. Census local government finances (2024 survey and 2022 Census of Governments) · Budgets: Clark County · Washoe County · Las Vegas · Henderson · Reno · North Las Vegas · Carson City
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 $9,321 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.
Between sessions, the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee approves budget changes.
Nevada cities can't set their own sales tax. Their share of the C-Tax is set by a state formula.
An estimate to show where tax money goes, not tax advice. Use the calculator above to see your own numbers.