Also 4–7 taxe, Sc. 5–7 taxt (6 taxte). [app. f. TAX v. Appears earlier than F. taxe (1405 in Godef., Compl.; rare bef. 16th c.), f. taxer vb.; also earlier than med.L. taxa in Du Cange. In ME., taxe and taske, TASK sb., were at first almost synonymous; but in their sense-development they were differentiated, tax following that of the corresponding verb, as an assessed money payment.]
1. A compulsory contribution to the support of government, levied on persons, property, income, commodities, transactions, etc., now at fixed rates, mostly proportional to the amount on which the contribution is levied.
‘Tax’ is the most inclusive term for these contributions, esp. when spoken of as the matter of taxation, and in such phrases as direct and indirect tax (see DIRECT a. 6 e, INDIRECT 2 c), including also similar levies for the support of the work of such local or specific bodies as county or municipal, councils, poor law or school boards, etc. But in British practice few of the individual imposts are called by the name, the most notable being the INCOME TAX, LAND TAX, and PROPERTY tax (also dog-tax, match-tax, window-tax), the rest being mostly styled, ‘duties,’ as excise, import, export, estate, house, stamp, death duties, etc. The ‘taxes’ levied by local bodies are usually called ‘rates,’ e.g., borough, county, poor, school, water rate, etc. In U.S. ‘tax’ is more generally applied in ordinary language to every federal, state, or local exaction of this kind: cf. the combs in 7.
† To pay double taxes (quot. 1759), i.e., to have two residences on which the assessed taxes were paid.
a. 1327. Pol. Songs (Camden), 151. Mo then ten sithen told y my tax.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 247. Þe lerid & þe lay granted þat þei said, & assigned a day, þat taxe to be laid.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 298. Oure clergie schal paie no subsidie ne taxe.
c. 1420. Brut, 382. Þere was grawnted vnto þe King, to maynetayne his warres, bothe of spiritualte & temporalte, an hole taxe and a dyme.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 5537. Taxe geteth he noon of Perse lond.
1480. Caxton, Chron. England, cxlix. Kyng Iohan … let arere an huge taxe thurgh oute all englond, that is to say xxxv. M. marc.
1483. Cath. Angl., 378/2. A Taxe, tallagium.
1533. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scotl., VI. 129. Lettrez to Dunde, Perth [etc.] to inbring thair taxtis for furnesing of wageouris.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Kings ix. 15. The summe of the taxe, that kynge Salomon raysed to the buyldinge of the house of the Lorde.
1552. Huloet, Taxe or subsidye graunted.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Task, alias Taxe,… is such a kinde of tribute, as being certainly rated vpon euery towne, was wont to be yearely paide…. Now is it not paide, but by consent giuen in Parlament, as the Subsidie is.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xx. 106. Men ought to pay such taxes as are by Kings imposed.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 344. A tax on German linen encourages home manufactures.
1759. Dilworth, Pope, 116. Pope … was able to pay double taxes, and lived like a man in a genteel independance.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. viii. 308. The land tax, in it’s modern shape, has superseded all the former methods of rating either property, or persons in respect of their property.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., V. ii. (heading), Part II. Of Taxes. Ibid. (1869), II. 461. A direct tax upon the wages of labour,… though the labourer might perhaps pay it out of his hand, could not properly be said to be even advanced by him.
1801. Hamilton, Wks. (1886), VII. 192. There is, perhaps, no item in the catalogue of our taxes which has been more unpopular than that which is called the direct tax.
1840. McCulloch, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), XXI. 95. A tax may be either direct or indirect. It is said to be direct when it is immediately taken from income or capital; and indirect when it is taken from them by making their owners pay for liberty to use certain articles, or to exercise certain privileges.
1846. (title) The Local Taxes of the United Kingdom.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., xvi. § 97. 129. In England the taxes amount to something like ten per cent., or one pound in every ten pounds.
† b. The rate at which anything is charged.
1455. Rolls of Parlt., V. 308/2. Eny Dismes or Subsidies … aftir the taxe or quantite of an hole Disme.
c. The taxes, the tax-collector. colloq.
1874. W. S. Gilbert, Charity, III. Nobody calls on him except the taxes.
1888. Stevenson, Popular Authors, II. Even the Rates and Taxes … have actually read your tales.
2. fig. Something compared to a tax in its incidence, obligation, or burdensomeness; an oppressive or burdensome charge, obligation, or duty; a burden, strain, heavy demand.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Lett. to Hon. Lady, iv. Wks. 1870, IV. 267. When Nature … foresaw this distresse or taxe, like to fall vpon her freedome.
1691–8. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1711), III. 65. Sleep, that great Tax and Custom of Nature upon the life of man.
1713. Steele, Guard., No. 85, ¶ 1. To suffer scandal … is the tax which every person of merit pays to the publick.
1727. De Foe, Eng. Tradesman, xix. (ed. 2), 238. A young beginner has such a tax upon him before he begins, that he must sink perhaps … half … his stock in painting and gilding, wainscoting and glazing, before he … can open his shop.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. xiv. You great men must pay a tax for your dignity. I am going to disturb you.
1858. Flor. Nightingale, Notes on Hospitals (1859), I. 6, note. ‘Contagion’ … has been not the less injurious to civilization and humanity, from the loss of life which has from time to time followed from the practices which it inculcates, and from the immense tax which it has entailed upon commerce.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., I. i. § 8. The greatness of the question … justifies even a heavier tax on the reader’s attention.
1890. H. Worsley, Dawn of the English Reformation, iv. 81. But in the early months of 1525 Luther was involved in an absorbing controversy with Carlstad; and, beyond such an irksome tax on his attention, it must be palpable that it was of the first moment for the attainment of success, that the scheme to send across the sea, into the midst of the English people, Christ’s Testament in their own native tongue should be kept a profound secret.
† 3. = TASK sb. 2, 2 b. Obs. rare.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 94. ‘I bidde nevere a betre taxe’ Quod sche, ‘bot ferst, er thou be sped, Thou schalt me leve such a wedd, That [etc.]’.
1559. Mirr. Mag. (1563), O j. A certayne taxe assygnd they have To shyne, and tymes divyde.
1564. Advertmts., in Cardwell, Doc. Ann. (1839), I. 294. The archedeacon shall appoynte the curates to certaine taxes of the Newe Testamente to bee conde without booke, And at theire nexte synode to exact a rehearsall of them.
† 4. The action or an act of taxing or charging a person with some offence; a charge, accusation; censure. Obs.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Burn. Pestle, Induct. Flie far from hence All private taxes, immodest phrases, What e’r may but shew like vicious.
1621. Venner, Tobacco, in Via Recta, etc. (1637), 354. They shall not passe without my tax.
1634. Jackson, Creed, VII. xiv. § 6. It was not a prophecy but a sharp reproof or tax.
1642. Declar. Lords & Com., 7 Nov., 4. After many high taxes of Us and Our Government.
† 5. A price-list, tariff. [So F. taxe. Obs. rare–1.
1625. D. Gordon (title), Pharmaco-Pinax, or a Table and Taxe of all the Pryces of all usuall Medicaments.
† 6. Phr. To have in tax, to have laid upon one, to have in hand. To take in tax, to take to task.
1635. Voy. Foxe & James to N. W. (Hakl. Soc.), 422. They being pertinent to the purpose I have in taxe.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 16 May. Sir Edward Savage did take the said Moyer in tax about it.
7. attrib. and Comb. a. General: attributive, as tax-claim, -law, -levy, -master, -mistress, -money, -paper, -rate, -return, -revenue, -system; objective and obj. gen., as tax-assessor, -collector, -controller, -dodger, -dodging, -extortioner, -farmer, -farming, -layer, -levying adj., -receiver; instrumental, etc., as tax-born, -bought, -burdened, -free, -laden adjs. b. Special combs.: tax-bond (U.S.), a state bond receivable as taxes (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895); tax-book, a list of property subject to taxation, with the amount of the taxes; tax-certificate (U.S.), a certificate given to a purchaser at a tax-sale by the authorized official, entitling the holder to a tax-deed at a certain date (Funk); tax-deed (U.S.), a conveyance made and delivered by the authorized official to a purchaser of land at a tax-sale (Cent. Dict., 1891); tax-duplicate (U.S.), a duplicate record of all tax-assessments, furnished to a tax-collector (Funk); tax-eater, one who is supported from the public revenue; so tax-eating sb. and a.; tax-lien (U.S.), the lien held by the state on property subject to taxation, which has priority over all other claims (Funk); tax-list, tax-roll = tax-book; taxman, a tax-collector; tax-sale (U.S.), a sale of the property of a delinquent tax-payer, made in order to defray the taxes due by him (Cent. Dict.); tax-title (U.S.), the title conveyed to the purchaser of property sold for taxes (Funk). See also TAX-CART, TAX-GATHERER, TAX-PAYER, etc.
1892. Daily News, 20 Feb., 6/7. Any one who has had dealings with *tax assessors will not easily be convinced that they are men to be hoodwinked in this simple way.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 76 (1810), 78. So I find it in the *tax-book of England.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 211. A certificate … that this portion was entered in the public tax-books, for an amount of land-tax entitling the possessor to a vote.
1823. Byron, Juan, XI. xli. If he found not this spawn of *tax-born riches.
1831. E. Elliott, Corn-Law Rhymes, Caged Rats, i. But ye are fat,… And fill’d with *tax-bought wine.
1904. Q. Rev., July, 182. Plunging his *tax-burdened people into the horrors of a sanguinary and needless war.
1899. Daily News, 24 Nov., 4/7. Dr. Robert refused as Mayor to sign the *tax-claims.
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, xxi. Does she still take me for a *tax collector?
1876. Nation (N. Y.), 30 March, 202. The *tax-dodger is one who, finding that the rate of taxation in Boston is too high for his means, flies … to some rural town.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 4 Sept., 2/3. What the Tax-Dodger thinks he is doing is to defraud Sir William Harcourt’s successor at the Exchequer of the gains of a tyrannical impost. Ibid. [Those] who practise the gentle art of *tax-dodging in this respect are in the long run defrauding their own order.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Register, XXXIII. 350. If you were to see one of my sons now becoming a *tax-eater, as a commissioned officer in the army. Ibid. (1817), Wks., XXXII. 25. Who look upon the poor as rivals in the work of *tax-eating. Ibid. (1822), Rur. Rides (1885), I. 151. Some one of the tax-eating crew had … called me an ‘incendiary.’
1903. D. M’Lean, Stud. Apost., x. 141. Palestine … fell under this *tax-farming system.
1704. Addison, Italy (1733), 126. The Fowl and Gibbier are *tax free.
1842. Miall, in Nonconf., II. 201. The *tax layers and the tax payers.
1892. Griffith, trans. Fouard’s St. Peter, 45. To exempt them from the *tax-levies every seventh year.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 5 June, 4/2. Representation in the law-making and *tax-levying assembly.
1898. Antrobus, trans. Pastor’s Hist. Popes, VI. 91. The *tax-list … has been preserved, and is interesting.
1830. Mrs. Bray, Talba, x. 83. The griping *taxman, and the conquered and taxed Moor.
1891. R. Dowling, Isle Surrey, 21. The taxman and the gasman and the waterman.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 549. Plundered by collectors and *tax-masters.
1738. Gentl. Mag., VIII. 193/1. [Fashion] keeps them perpetually busy in doing and undoing; and Folly is her Prime Confident and *Taxmistress.
1610. Histrio-m., VI. 205. Soft, sirs, I must talk with you for *tax-money, To relieve the poor.
1658. J. Harrington, Oceana, 77. The Parishes having Levied the Tax money,… shall return it unto the Officers of the Hundreds.
1858. E. B. Ramsay, Remin., v. (1870), 102. The provost sends me a *tax paper.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., VI. xxxix. 207. In proportion to the general *tax-rates.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 57. As long as … he is able to keep pace with his tax-rates, which are daily becoming more exorbitant.
1830. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 343. Your petitioners are the bees, and … the *tax-receivers are the drones.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. xliii. (1889), I. 498. Apt to turn their property into these exempted forms just before they make their *tax returns.
1891. Griffith, trans. Fouard’s Christ, I. 225. Engaged in farming out the *tax-revenue of the provinces.
1545. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 21. To bring in with him the *taxt roll.
1841. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 399. In Campania … Honorius was compelled in the year 395 to expunge from the tax-roll, as become utterly waste, more than three hundred thousand acres of land.
