Democratic Taxation

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I had an idea for tax reform recently that I've never heard talked about anywhere. I wanted to run it past you all and hopefully get some feedback. Maybe it's already been done and failed or maybe it's a good idea that I should flesh-out more, hopefully you can tell me.

Often, you'll hear people say "vote with your wallet" and usually that just boils down to buying one product over another or boycotting something. It seems to me that the money you earn at work can only be used in 3 ways. You either give it to a company in exchange for goods, the government in exchange for social services, or a bank for savings/investment. The right usually favors the free market and the left goes toward government. So voting with your wallet affects the free market and banking routes much more than the government route, since the government will get it's share in taxes regardless.

I'm thinking, if we had agency in taxation it would be both bi-partisan and more democratic. My idea is to have a much reduced general income tax, with the option to allocate more of your own income tax to specific government departments of your choosing. Those on the right, looking for smaller government and lower taxes can just pay the minimum and feel less cheated. Those on the left that want every social program on earth can put their money where their mouth is and allocate more of their personal income toward those projects.

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