A tax is a tribute that is set according to the taxpayer's ability to pay .
A tax is a tribute that is established and requested depending on the financial capacity of those who are not exempt from paying it. The term has its origins in the Latin term impositus .
The tax has the particularity of not being based on a specific or direct consideration on the part of the person claiming it. Its objective is to finance the expenses of the creditor, which is generally the State .
Taxpaying capacity means that those who own more, must pay more taxes. However, this is not always true, since other causes are often prioritized: increasing revenue, discouraging the purchase of a certain product, promoting certain economic activities, etc. Guerrilla or terrorist groups , for their part, usually talk about the revolutionary tax to refer to a system that allows them to obtain financing through extortion and threats.
Elements of a tax
Among the elements of a tax, there are the taxable event (the situation that motivates the tax obligation according to the law), the taxpayer (the person, whether natural or legal, who has the obligation to pay it), the tax base (the quantification and valuation of the taxable event), the type of tax (the proportion that must be applied based on the tax base to establish the calculation of the tax), the tax quota (the amount corresponding to the tax) and the tax debt (the result of reducing the fee with deductions or increasing it with surcharges ).
According to the economist Bielsa , taxes consist of that part of the wealth that the State establishes and demands from taxpayers whose objective is to raise funds to use in public expenses. For his part, Fleiner expresses that they are benefits that the State and certain Public Law entities require from citizens to satisfy their economic needs.
A tax is not based on direct or specific consideration.
Classification according to type
The first classification of the tax establishes that there is a direct tax when the economic situation is evaluated, as is the case with assets or income, and an indirect tax when what is taxed and conditioned is consumption or expenses incurred in a certain period. This classification is made taking into account who the tax falls on and is the most used.
There is a second classification of taxes, into proportional (the fee is established at a fixed percentage, such as VAT or Territory Tax), regressive (as the value subject to a tax increases, a rate is established that decreases). ) and progressive (the rate varies, increasing or decreasing in relation to the increase or decrease in the taxable amount. The inheritance tax or the complementary global tax, for example).
List of some taxes
There are taxes on various activities, all of them are mentioned in the National Constitution of each country. Some taxes can be:
Income tax : it is applied to income that individuals or legal entities have, whether they reside in the country or abroad. According to each country, the percentage to pay varies, but it is a tax that is present in almost all nations with a capitalist regime.
Value added tax : according to the activity carried out by each citizen and the profits received from it, they must pay a percentage to the tax collection. The constitution establishes the percentages according to each activity carried out.
Tax on production and services : This is the tax that applies to certain products, such as alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and bottled water. Commission, agency and consignment services that have been declared in the law are also included in this type of taxes.
Asset tax : those people who carry out business activities must pay this tax in relation to the assets they own that may have a monetary value.
In addition, there are taxes on vehicle ownership, provision of telephone services, acquisition of real estate , among many others.
The tax credit
To finish, we will define a fundamental concept when talking about taxes, the tax credit .
A tax credit is understood to mean all the money and assets that are linked to the tax law . The collection of certain taxes, such as those imposed on income or value added , are in the nature of tax credits.