II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 437 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the Secretary 

of the Treasury to provide each individual taxpayer a receipt for an 

income tax payment which itemizes the portion of the payment which 

is allocable to various Government spending categories. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 2, 2011 

Mr. NELSON of Florida (for himself and Mr. BROWN of Massachusetts) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require 

the Secretary of the Treasury to provide each individual 

taxpayer a receipt for an income tax payment which 

itemizes the portion of the payment which is allocable 

to various Government spending categories. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Taxpayer Receipt 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ITEMIZED FEDERAL TAX RECEIPT. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 77 of the Internal Rev3 enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 

4 following new section: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 7529. FEDERAL TAX RECEIPT. 

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall send to 

7 every taxpayer who files an individual income tax return 

8 for any taxable year an itemized Federal tax receipt show9 ing a proportionate allocation (in money terms) of the tax10 payer’s total tax payment for such taxable year among 

11 major expenditure categories for the fiscal year ending in 

12 such taxable year. The Federal tax receipt shall also in13 clude 2 separate line items showing the amount of Federal 

14 debt per legal United States resident at the end of such 

15 fiscal year, and the amount of additional borrowing per 

16 legal United States resident by the Federal Government 

17 in such fiscal year. 

18 ‘‘(b) TOTAL TAX PAYMENTS.—For purposes of sub19 section (a), the total tax payment of a taxpayer for any 

20 taxable year is equal to the sum of— 

21 ‘‘(1) the tax imposed by subtitle A for such tax22 able year (as shown on such taxpayer’s return), plus 

23 ‘‘(2) the tax imposed by section 3101 on wages 

24 received by such taxpayer during such taxable year. 

25 ‘‘(c) DETERMINATION OF PROPORTIONATE ALLOCA26 TION OF TAX PAYMENT AMONG MAJOR EXPENDITURE


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1 CATEGORIES.—For purposes of determining a propor2 tionate allocation described in subsection (a), not later 

3 than 60 days after the end of any fiscal year, the Director 

4 of the Congressional Budget Office shall provide to the 

5 Secretary the percentage of Federal outlays for such fiscal 

6 year for the following categories and subcategories of Fed7 eral spending: 

8 ‘‘(1) Social Security. 

9 ‘‘(2) National defense: 

10 ‘‘(A) Overseas combat operations. 

11 ‘‘(3) Medicare. 

12 ‘‘(4) Low-income assistance programs: 

13 ‘‘(A) Housing assistance. 

14 ‘‘(B) Food stamps and other food pro15 grams. 

16 ‘‘(5) Other Federal health programs: 

17 ‘‘(A) Medicaid, Children’s Health Insur18 ance Program, and other public health pro19 grams. 

20 ‘‘(B) National Institutes of Health and 

21 other health research and training programs. 

22 ‘‘(C) Food and Drug Administration, Con23 sumer Product Safety Commission, and other 

24 regulatory health and safety activities. 

25 ‘‘(6) Unemployment benefits. 


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1 ‘‘(7) Net interest on the Federal debt. 

2 ‘‘(8) Veterans benefits and services. 

3 ‘‘(9) Education: 

4 ‘‘(A) K–12 and vocational education. 

5 ‘‘(B) Higher education. 

6 ‘‘(C) Job training and assistance. 

7 ‘‘(10) Federal employee retirement and dis8 ability benefits. 

9 ‘‘(11) Highway, mass transit, and railroad 

10 funding. 

11 ‘‘(12) Mortgage finance (Federal National 

12 Mortgage Association, Federal Home Loan Mort13 gage Corporation, Federal Housing Administration, 

14 and other housing finance programs). 

15 ‘‘(13) Justice and law enforcement funding, in16 cluding Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal 

17 courts, and Federal prisons. 

18 ‘‘(14) Natural resources, land, and water man19 agement and conservation funding, including Na20 tional Parks. 

21 ‘‘(15) Foreign aid. 

22 ‘‘(16) Science and technology research and ad23 vancement: 

24 ‘‘(A) National Aeronautics and Space Ad25 ministration. 


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1 ‘‘(17) Air transportation, including Federal 

2 Aviation Administration. 

3 ‘‘(18) Farm subsidies. 

4 ‘‘(19) Energy funding, including renewable en5 ergy and efficiency programs, Strategic Petroleum 

6 Reserve, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commis7 sion. 

8 ‘‘(20) Disaster relief and insurance, including 

9 Federal Emergency Management Administration. 

10 ‘‘(21) Diplomacy and embassies. 

11 ‘‘(22) Environmental Protection Agency and 

12 pollution control programs. 

13 ‘‘(23) Internal Revenue Service and United 

14 States Treasury operations. 

15 ‘‘(24) Coast Guard and maritime programs. 

16 ‘‘(25) Community Development Block Grants. 

17 ‘‘(26) Congress and legislative branch activities. 

18 ‘‘(27) United States Postal Service. 

19 ‘‘(28) Executive Office of the President. 

20 ‘‘(29) Other Federal spending. 

21 ‘‘(d) ADDITIONAL MAJOR EXPENDITURE CAT22 EGORIES.—With respect to each fiscal year, the Director 

23 of the Congressional Budget Office shall include additional 

24 categories and subcategories of Federal spending for pur25 poses of subsection (c), but only if, and only for so long 


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1 as, each such additional category or subcategory exceeds 

2 3 percent of total Federal outlays for the fiscal year. 

3 ‘‘(e) TIMING OF FEDERAL TAX RECEIPT.—A Federal 

4 tax receipt shall be made available to each taxpayer as 

5 soon as practicable upon the processing of that taxpayer’s 

6 income tax return by the Internal Revenue Service. 

7 ‘‘(f) USE OF TECHNOLOGIES.—The Internal Revenue 

8 Service is encouraged to utilize modern technologies such 

9 as electronic mail and the Internet to minimize the cost 

10 of sending Federal tax receipts to taxpayers. The Internal 

11 Revenue Service shall establish an interactive program on 

12 its Internet Web site to allow taxpayers to generate Fed13 eral tax receipts on their own. 

14 ‘‘(g) COST.—No charge shall be imposed to cover any 

15 cost associated with the production or distribution of the 

16 Federal tax receipt. 

17 ‘‘(h) REGULATIONS.—The Secretary may prescribe 

18 such regulations as may be necessary to carry out this 

19 section.’’. 

20 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

21 for chapter 77 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 

22 amended by adding at the end the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 7529. Federal tax receipt.’’. 


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1 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

2 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 

3 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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