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.
Virginia income tax: 2% on the first $3,000 of taxable income, 3% up to $5,000, 5% up to $17,000 and 5.75% above that, the same for every filing status. Virginia starts from your federal adjusted gross income and subtracts Social Security, which it doesn't tax. Then it takes off the standard deduction ($8,750 single, $17,500 joint for 2025 and 2026), $930 for each person in the household, $800 more for each person 65 or older, and the age deduction: $12,000 for each person 65 or older, reduced $1 for every $1 of income (not counting Social Security) above $50,000, or $75,000 for married couples. Up to $40,000 a person of military retirement is subtracted too; it doesn't change the age deduction. Other pensions, including government ones, are taxed. You owe no Virginia income tax if your federal adjusted gross income, less Social Security and the age deduction, is under $11,950, or $23,900 for married couples filing together. You can still get the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit. Itemized deductions, the spouse tax adjustment for two-earner couples, and other subtractions such as military pay aren't modeled.
Credits: Virginia's refundable Earned Income Tax Credit is 20% of the federal credit for 2025 and 2026 (lawmakers extended it through 2029); any amount above your tax comes back as a refund. Families with income under the federal poverty line can instead take the Credit for Low-Income Individuals, $300 a person, which can't be more than the tax. You can't take both, so this page uses whichever is worth more. Neither credit is allowed if anyone on the return claims the age deduction or the extra $800 exemption for age 65 or older. For households with someone 65 or older, this page uses whichever helps more: those two, or the credit. The one-time $200 / $400 rebate paid in fall 2025 was for 2024 taxes and isn't counted.
Where state taxes go: Virginia's income tax and most of the state sales tax go into the General Fund. This page splits them the way the final state budget does: the 2026 Appropriation Act (signed June 29, 2026) spends $37.3 billion from the General Fund from July 2026 to June 2027, and the shares come from the act's own totals for each area of state government. Health care and human services get 31.9%, K-12 schools 29.1%, colleges and universities 11.2%, and public safety and veterans 7.8%. Car tax relief to localities ($950 million) and the state's share of sheriffs, jails and other local officers ($981 million) are shown on their own lines. The same split is used for 2025 and 2026. Of the 4.3% state sales tax, 2.025 cents per dollar goes to the General Fund, 1.125 cents to school divisions by their number of school-age children, 0.25 cents to the state's share of school costs, and 0.9 cents to transportation.
Sales tax: 4.3% state plus 1% local everywhere (5.3%). Northern Virginia (Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties and Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park), Hampton Roads (14 cities and counties) and Central Virginia (Richmond and seven counties around it) add 0.7% for their regional transportation authorities, for 6%. The Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, James City County and York County) adds 1% more, for 7%; half of it goes to tourism marketing and half to the locality. Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Northampton, Patrick and Pittsylvania counties and the city of Danville add a voter-approved 1% for school buildings, for 6.3%. A 2026 law lets any city or county hold a vote on that tax; none of the new ones start before 2027. Groceries and hygiene products have only the 1% local tax, which this page doesn't count. Part of a county's 1% local tax is shared with its towns; this page shows it all going to the county. Meals, lodging and cigarette taxes aren't included.
Cities, counties and towns: Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities. An independent city isn't part of any county, so you'll see one city section that covers everything a county would, schools included. A town is part of its county, so town residents see both. Virginia school boards can't tax; the city or county budget pays the local share of schools, which is usually its biggest cost. Fairfax County, Arlington and Loudoun are split by their adopted 2026-27 General Fund budgets, area by area: Fairfax spends $3.05 billion of $5.97 billion (51.1%) on schools, Arlington $655 million of $1.70 billion, and Loudoun $1.54 billion of $3.22 billion. Virginia Beach's 2026-27 budget book shows how much of the city's taxes go to schools ($559.5 million of a $1.62 billion General Fund), but it lists departments only for all city funds together, so the other departments are shares of that all-funds list (leaving out water and sewer), sized to fit the General Fund. Norfolk is split by its 2025-26 General Fund department by department, counting only the city's own money for schools ($170.8 million; the state pays about $264 million more). Prince William County is split the way its 2026-27 budget splits the average tax bill (57.3% to schools). For Richmond, the school share ($285 million of $1.06 billion in 2025-26) comes from the city budget and everything else is split by what the city spent, as reported to the U.S. Census Bureau. Chesapeake and the other cities, counties and towns are split by their Census spending (2022 or 2024), leaving out utilities and other services paid by fees. In the Census numbers, "Public schools" is all school spending, including the large part paid by the state and federal government, so it looks bigger than the share your local taxes pay.
Property tax: your home's value times your city's or county's real estate rate, plus your town's rate if you live in a town. There's no separate school district tax. The rates are the 2025 rates every locality reported to Virginia Tax, checked line by line against Virginia Tax's official table. For 2026, the new rates are used for Fairfax County ($1.12 per $100, down from $1.1225), Arlington ($1.053, up from $1.033), Prince William ($0.865, down from $0.906), Loudoun ($0.805), Virginia Beach ($0.97), Richmond ($1.20) and Norfolk ($1.23); other places keep their 2025 rate. Virginia assesses homes at full market value, but assessments often trail sale prices, so your real bill may be lower. As a check, the 2025 rates times Census median home values come out about 15% above the median tax the Census reports for 2019-2023, when home values were lower. Special district and service district levies, stormwater fees and tax relief for seniors and disabled veterans aren't included.
Car tax: most Virginia households also pay a yearly personal property tax on their cars to their city or county (for example, $4.00 per $100 of value in Virginia Beach and $3.70 in Richmond), partly offset by state car tax relief. It isn't included on this page.
Virginia gas taxes: the state motor fuels tax, 30.8 cents a gallon from July 2024, 31.7 cents from July 2025 and 32.6 cents from July 2026 (it rises with inflation each July), plus the regional fuels tax that distributors pay everywhere in Virginia: 9.0, 9.3 and 9.6 cents for the same years. The state tax goes to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund: about half to highway maintenance and half to the Transportation Trust Fund for construction, transit, rail, ports and airports. The regional tax stays in its region: Northern Virginia transit, Hampton Roads' regional fund, the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, the I-81 Corridor Improvement Fund, or VDOT grants to your construction district. Gas isn't charged sales tax. Average gas prices used: $2.89 a gallon for 2025 and $3.60 for 2026 (federal EIA prices for the Lower Atlantic region, January to October 2026).
Still estimated: Virginia Beach's department shares (from its all-funds budget, not a General Fund table), Richmond's split (school share from its 2025-26 budget, the rest by Census spending), Chesapeake and the other places split by Census spending, 2025 state spending (split like the 2026-27 budget), real estate rates for 2026 outside the big localities, town rates (2025, as reported to Virginia Tax), assessments at full market value, and the average gas prices.
Not included: the car (personal property) tax, meals, lodging and cigarette taxes, the 1% grocery tax, the spouse tax adjustment, itemized deductions, and local service district taxes.
Virginia sources: Standard deduction (Virginia Tax) · Deductions and exemptions (Code 58.1-322.03) · Low-income and earned income credits (Code 58.1-339.8) · 2025 tax law changes · 2026 legislative summary (Virginia Tax) · 2026 poverty guidelines · 2026 Appropriation Act, Chapter 1 · How the sales tax is split · Historic Triangle tax · Regional and school sales taxes (Virginia Tax news) · School construction sales tax · NVTA · CVTA · 2025 local tax rates (Virginia Tax) · Census median property tax by county · State gas tax (DMV) · Regional fuels tax (DMV) · Where the regional fuels tax goes · Transportation fund split (VACo) · Lower Atlantic gas prices (EIA) · U.S. Census local government finances · Budgets: Norfolk · Prince William · Fairfax County · Arlington · Loudoun · Richmond · Virginia Beach
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 $11,832 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.
Visit the City of Virginia Beach website to find your council members ↗
An estimate to show where tax money goes, not tax advice. Use the calculator above to see your own numbers.