Taxation
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Human (talk | contribs) at 05:22, April 17, 2007. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Taxation is how governments obtain money in order to provide services required for the common good.
There are many kinds of taxes, just as there are many things that are (or are not) considered to be in the common good.
Taxes can include:
- Tariffs on imported or exported goods and services
- Property taxes on the value of one's real estate holdings
- Income taxes on money that is earned
- Estate taxes on inheritances
- Sales taxes on marketplace transactions
- Poll taxes required in order to vote
- Rooms and meals taxes, charged on restaurant and hotel purchases
- "Sin taxes" which are applied to socially disapproved products such as tobacco and alcohol
- Tolls are fees paid by users of a specific piece of infrastructure, like a road or bridge
- Value added tax is charged to manufacturers on the increase in value from raw materials to finished product (and of course passed along to consumers of the product)
Most systems of taxation not only use a combination of several of these, but have many exceptions (and loopholes) from universal application - for instance, a sales tax might not apply to food or clothing.
Rates of taxation and the provision of some services can be matters of great political contention.