What this is
Plain Civics is an independent, non-partisan project based in Pennsylvania. Most government numbers are public, but they are scattered across agencies and written for specialists. These tools take that data and turn it into answers you can use: where your tax dollars go, why your paycheck is the size it is, who represents you, and who is spending money to influence them.
It is free to use, needs no account, and does not track visitors. See the privacy section for exactly what that means.
The tools
- Tax receipt. Enter what you paid and see it spread across federal spending areas, plus state and local pieces, in a printable report. Tax dollars are not traced to individual programs, so this is a proportional estimate.
- Paycheck decoder. Walks through a pay stub line by line: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and what each one funds.
- Benefit cliff calculator. Shows how extra income can reduce tax credits and benefits, so a raise can be compared with what you would actually keep.
- Social Security estimator. Compares monthly benefits and lifetime totals for each claiming age from 62 to 70.
- Local budget receipt. Paste a city or county budget to see where local taxes go.
- Your representatives. Look up your members of Congress and state legislators by ZIP code. No street address is asked for or stored.
- Ballot decoder. Points you to where to register and vote, and how to research races and ballot measures.
- Company money trail. Lobbying spending, political committee giving and federal contracts for a company, from public filings.
- Bill tracker. Status, official summaries and history for bills in Congress.
- Election tracker. Races, control of Congress and past results, refreshed from public sources.
Where the information comes from
Everything comes from public sources such as the Treasury, IRS, Social Security Administration, Congress.gov, the Federal Election Commission, USAspending.gov, the Lobbying Disclosure database and the Census Bureau. The full list, with what each source is used for, is on the sources page. Each tool also lists its own sources at the bottom of the page.
How we handle accuracy
- Numbers are entered from official tables and labelled with the year they apply to. Tax and benefit parameters change every year, so check them against the official source before relying on them.
- Estimates are labelled as estimates. Nothing here is tax, legal, financial or voting advice.
- Lobbying and donation records show who spends money, not what any person intended or what any member did in return. The tools say so where it matters.
- Election results and calls come from public sources and can change as ballots are counted.
Non-partisan
Plain Civics does not endorse candidates, parties or ballot measures, and sponsors or advertisers do not control the data, the calculations or what is said about any candidate, company or party.
How it is funded
Hosting and data costs are paid by the project. To help cover them, the site may show a clearly labelled sponsor message, accept donations, or show ads. Ads load only if you choose to allow them, run in an isolated frame that cannot read anything saved by this site, and never appear on the tools that handle income. Details are in the advertising section.
Corrections and contact
Found a mistake, an out-of-date number or a broken link? Please tell us at and include the page and what you saw. Corrections are made as quickly as we can verify them.