Download Excise tax

Vocabulary List #4
National debt: The total amount of
money owed by the federal
government.
Revenue: Amount of money received.
Expenditure: Amount of money spent.
Balanced budget: An unheard of
situation where expenditures =
revenues
Tax Deficit: Government is spending
more than it is taking in.
Tax Surplus: Government is taking in
more than it is spending.
Progressive tax: A tax that is
proportionally more of one’s income
the more money one makes. (Falls
more heavily on the rich)
Regressive tax: A tax that is
proportionally more of one’s income
the less money one makes. (falls more
heavily on the poor)
Income tax: A proportion of one’s wages
or salary taken by the government
Excise tax: A special tax on a specific
good or service.
Sin tax: An excise tax levied on a good or
service that people are willing to
accept because think they “shouldn’t”
be buying the thing anyway.
Sales tax: When the government takes a
cut of every sale a producer makes,
like a pimp.
Tariff: A tax levied on goods imported
from other countries.
Capital gains tax: A tax paid on money
gained from investments (including 2nd
homes)
Tax deduction: An amount of money the
government subtracts from your
income before calculating how much
you owe, lowering your tax rate.
Tax loophole: A sneaky, but legal way to
get out of paying taxes.
Tax credit: An amount the government
subtracts from the amount of taxes
you have to pay.
Tax refund: When you overpay your
taxes through withholding, the
government owes you this much back.
Tax burden: The relative amount of
taxes a group has to pay. (i.e. 27% of
the tax burden falls on the top 1% of
taxpayers)
Laffer curve: A graph showing how the
amount of tax revenue received by the
government eventually decreases as
the tax rate increases.
Disincentive: Opposite of an incentive.
A punishment or penalty used to
discourage certain types of behavior.
Crowding out: Extensive government
borrowing and spending causes
inflation and raises interest rates,
blocking individuals and companies
from borrowing or spending