The Praxis think tank has constructed an online tax burden calculator designed to show how much tax an individual pays and where those tax-euros end up.

“We are used to looking at income tax or the general tax burden of the state and the ratio of tax collection against GDP,” Hille Hinsberg of Praxis said in a press release today.

“The current calculator takes into consideration taxes paid by the individual, their employer and taxes related to consumption,” he said

The calculator can be found here.

Hinsberg said that when people consume, they pay VAT, and with certain products like alcohol and tobacco, an additional excise tax must also be paid. In this way, she said, a person may end up being taxed two to three times on the same income. The tax calculator takes all these factors into account.

Users must enter their monthly gross wage and other sources of income, such as dividends. Certain expenses like alcohol, electricity, donations must also be noted.

The website then calculates how much of the user’s tax money goes to which state sector as well as the size of their total tax burden.

ERR News entered the gross salary figure for the average Estonian (976 euros per month in the second quarter 2013) with no extra income. It found that slightly over 50 percent of the person’s labor cost – gross salary plus social taxes paid by the employer – goes to tax each month. The 700-euro total includes VAT (125 euros per month), social tax (330 euros) and income tax (171 euros).

That money goes primarily to social benefits (275 euros per month), followed by education (120 euros) and health services (74 euros).