Where Does My Tax Go?

Where Does My Tax Go? is a UK-focused calculator built around a single idea: showing taxpayers a receipt for their income tax and National Insurance. Instead of stopping at take-home pay, it allocates the tax you pay across public spending areas such as the NHS, pensions, schools, defence and debt interest, so you can see the destination of your contribution.

The core receipt calculator is supported by a wider set of tools. You can run Scottish income tax band by band against England, convert hourly pay into an annual take-home figure, estimate what you keep from a bonus, and check take-home pay for salaries from £15,000 to £150,000. Student loan plans 1, 2, 4, 5 and postgraduate are covered, along with the 2025/26 tax year and Autumn Budget 2026 changes.

Background pages explain tax codes such as 1257L and show tax since 1976 in today’s money, which helps put current deductions in context. There is also an embed option for bloggers and site owners who want to add the calculator to their own pages.

It suits UK employees, payroll staff, journalists and anyone curious about public spending who wants a quick, plain-language breakdown. To use it, start with the main receipt calculator and enter your salary and tax code, then explore the salary and hourly pages for comparisons. Treat the output as an illustrative estimate and check the methodology page for assumptions.