Explicit Tax

Explicit tax

A tax specifically collected by a government; includes income, withholding, property, sales, and value-added taxes and tariffs.

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Explicit Tax

A tax levied and collected by a government. Examples include income tax, value added tax, sales tax, estate tax, and so forth. This compares to hidden regulatory fees, which add to the cost of doing business without necessarily adding to government revenue. For example, some argue for a carbon tax that would, theoretically, increase government revenue by taxing the emission of carbon dioxide. This compares to a proposed cap-and-trade system, which requires carbon emitters to buy permission to emit without changing how they are actually taxed.