June 8, 2008
Bernard linked to these spreadsheets on the Treasury website, which include the details of the spending allocated in the budget.
So using this and plugging in the basic income tax rates from the IRD site, I’ve put together this simple spreadsheet to implement the idea I mentioned here last week, breaking the total tax paid amount down by government department:
At the top are the usual suspects: Transport, Health and Education. Towards the bottom some of the smaller and lesser known departments: Archives, Women’s Affairs, and the Serious Fraud Office.
By default it shows the breakdown for the average household income ($67,973 as at 30 June 2007, according to Statistics New Zealand).
If you like you can also download a copy and enter your own income at the top to see how much tax you paid and how it will be spent.
There are probably lots of things that I could add into this - for example, at the moment it doesn’t account for Kiwisaver, or Working For Families. If somebody wants to have a hack at the underlying spreadsheet drop me a line and I’ll invite you in as an editor in Google Docs.
What do you think? Surprised by the results?