Gov ScoreAustralia

← The Budget · Educational tool

Build your own Federal Budget

You start with the government’s 2026-27 Budget, exactly as published. Move any line, in dollars or as a share of the economy, and watch the deficit, the debt and the interest bill respond.

Revenue
$815.3bn
26.4% of GDP
Spending
$833.3bn
26.9% of GDP
Deficit
$17.9bn
0.6% of GDP
Against the Budget
No change
same bottom line

When I change a line, pay for it by:

Nothing else moves. Extra spending or lower taxes add to the deficit, which is borrowed.

Try an example:

Revenue: what comes in

47.9% of revenue
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
19.3% of revenue
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
13.4% of revenue
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget

GST is collected by Canberra and handed to the states, so it also sits inside “Payments to states”. Changing it here doesn’t change that line.

5.0% of revenue
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
7.1% of revenue
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
7.2% of revenue
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget

Spending: what goes out

37.1% of spending
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
16.4% of spending
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
13.3% of spending
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
6.9% of spending
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
6.2% of spending
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget
3.8% of spending
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget

Interest is set by the debt already owed and by interest rates, not by a decision. You can move it to see its weight, but “pay for it” never touches it.

16.2% of spending
$bn % of GDP As in the Budget

What your budget means

  • Your budget has a deficit of $17.9bn (0.6% of GDP). The government’s Budget has a deficit of $17.9bn on the same measure.
  • To balance it: income tax would have to rise by 4.6%, or all spending other than interest would have to fall by 2.2%, or a mix of the two.
  • Defence funding would be 2.02% of GDP (Budget: 2.02%).
  • For every $1 it raises, your government spends $1.02 (Budget: $1.02).

Your revenue

$815bntotal
Personal income tax$390.9bn47.9%
Company tax$157.0bn19.3%
GST$109.2bn13.4%
Excise & customs duty$41.0bn5.0%
Other taxes$58.2bn7.1%
Non-tax revenue$59.0bn7.2%

Your spending

$833bntotal
Social security & welfare$308.7bn37.1%
Health$136.9bn16.4%
Payments to states (mainly GST)$111.1bn13.3%
Education$57.3bn6.9%
Defence$52.1bn6.2%
Interest on government debt$31.9bn3.8%
Everything else$135.3bn16.2%

How this works

Every starting figure is the government’s own, from Budget Paper No. 1 (source). The bottom line here is revenue minus spending on an accrual basis, so it differs a little from the “underlying cash balance” in the headlines. Percentages are shares of the nominal GDP the Budget itself assumes (3.09 trillion dollars; the Budget doesn’t print this figure, so it is derived from the dollar amounts and GDP shares it does print).

The calculations are open: the engine is a single tested file, and every share link encodes your whole budget so anyone can check it.

What it doesn’t model

  • Behaviour. A tax cut can change how much people work, spend and invest. This tool assumes nobody changes what they do.
  • The wider economy. Large spending changes affect inflation, interest rates and jobs. None of that feeds back here.
  • Time. Real changes take years to legislate and phase in. Here they happen at once, in one Budget year.
  • The states. Cutting payments to the states doesn’t make the costs disappear; it moves them.

Use it to understand the size of things and the trade-offs between them, not to predict the future.

Questions people ask about the Budget

Can the Federal Budget be balanced?

Yes, but it takes large changes. Try the “Balance it with spending cuts” and “Balance it with tax rises” buttons above to see how big. The budget deficit page tracks the real result each year.

How much does the government pay in interest?

Interest is one of the fastest-growing lines in the Budget. See interest on government debt and gross government debt for the official figures.

Where does the money go now?

The Budget page lists every line as published, and your tax receipt shows where your own tax goes.

Is this the same as the Parliamentary Budget Office tool?

No. The Parliamentary Budget Office publishes its own long-term projections tool. This one starts from the current Budget year, works line by line, and lets you share your Budget with a link.