Budget 2026 calculator: Get your 'taxpayer receipt' here

Thursday, 28 May 2026

Use our calculator to see where your tax dollars go.

Ahead of the last election, National leader Christopher Luxon promised a “taxpayer receipt” so that all voters could get an idea of where exactly their tax dollars were going.

The idea never got off the ground in Government. But with the Budget for the coming year released today The Post has built an interactive calculator so you can see exactly how your tax dollars will be spent.

There are some caveats. Our calculator covers personal income tax, which makes up about half of total tax revenue. The rest of the money the Government allocated in the Budget comes from corporate tax, GST, a handful of other taxes and fees, and of course debt.

But since these dollars go into the same consolidated fund and become interchangeable, you can work out what proportion of your personal tax goes to different areas, from health to superannuation to keeping the lights on in Wellington. Which means we can tell you if you earn, say, $80,000, that about $2822 of your tax dollars went to the health system.

Catch up on all Budget coverage here: The Post Budget 2026

We have excluded some areas of spending that explicitly come from other levies or taxes, like ACC levies or fuel taxes. That doesn’t mean you won’t see any transport spending at all - a lot of it is now funded from general taxation - but it might be a little bit less than you’d expect.

Try the calculator out below.