Tax
A financial charge or other levy that is
imposed on an individual or a legal or even a sub-national entity by a state or
a functional equivalent of a state like a tribe, secessionist movement or
revolutionary movement among others, is commonly referred to as a tax, also
known as a duty.
Taxes can either be part of a direct tax
or indirect tax, and may be paid in cash or as corvée labor (taxes in the form
of labor). In modern times, particularly in capitalist and democratic taxation
systems, taxes are levied in money, however, taxation in kind and corvée
taxation is characteristic of the more retro traditional or pre-capitalist
states and their functional equivalents.
The collection of taxes is usually taken
up by a governmental agency such as the Internal Revenue Service in the United
States. So long as it is a modern society and a buoyant economy that an
individual is part of, there is no scope for escaping taxes. If an individual is
found not paying taxes as per the guidelines laid down by the government, almost
instantly, penalties such as fines, forfeiture, and imprisonment are carried out
against the non-paying entity or individual. These penalties may also be usually
carried out by a governmental agency, such as the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in the US. In most modern industrialized countries of the present
day world, when an individual fails to pay his government the taxes that that
government demands of him, it will ultimately result in his imprisonment at the
hands of the state. Such a stance is adopted by the authorities in order to set
a trend and show others what can happen to them if they are to evade taxes,
which is considered a crime as per the penal code of most governing bodies of
the world. However, this being a major factor involving the individual having to
give up a substantial part of his income away is reason for many a debate on the
different aspects of Taxation. The means by which taxation is carried out, and
the productive causes to which the funds raised through taxation should be put,
are often a matter of hot debate in politics and economics, so discussions on
taxation are frequently unpleasant.
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