Provide an annual tax receipt to each citizen detailing:
-Summary of federal benefits and purchases for your nation, state, town, and person (what your money paid for)
-Current year’s expenditures & obligations (the bill)
-What you owed in federal taxes (your share)
-What you paid in federal taxes (your receipt)
-Total taxes collected that year (total receipts)
-Current year’s deficit (balance due for new charges)
-Total debt outstanding (total balance due / payoff amount)
-Your share of current year's deficit and total debt outstanding (for financial planning)
* * *
Americans receive a receipt for buying a pack of gum. It shows what was purchased, what it cost, and what was paid. Yet taxpayers receive little comparable information after paying their taxes.
We can do better.