Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) taxation, system used by governments to obtain money from people and organizations. The revenue collected is used by the government to support itself and to provide public services. Aside from being r...

(Encyclopedia) farming, in the history of taxation, collection of taxes through private contractors. Usually, the tax farmer paid a lump sum to the public treasury; the difference between that sum and the sum actual...

(Encyclopedia) land tax, impost levied upon real property. It is sometimes called a real estate tax, especially when assessed against both improved and unimproved land. Probably the earliest direct tax and formerly ...

(Encyclopedia) capital levy, form of taxation by which the government takes part of the capital of any person or business, as distinguished from a tax on personal or business income. It is usually applied to all cap...

(Encyclopedia) Vickrey, William Spencer, 1914–96, Canadian economist, b. Victoria, B.C., Ph.D. Columbia, 1947. He was on the faculty of Columbia from 1946 until his death. In 1996 he and James Mirrlees shared the ...

(Encyclopedia) farming the taxes: see farming, in taxation. ...

(Encyclopedia) Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson sĕlˈĭgmən [key], 1861–1939, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Columbia, 1885. As professor (1885–1931) at Columbia, he edited the “Columbia Universi...

(Encyclopedia) duty, in taxation: see tariff; excise taxes. ...

(Encyclopedia) Judas of Galilee, fl. a.d. 6, a leader of the Zealots, a radical revolutionary Jewish sect. He raised an insurrection against the taxation census of Cyrenius (a.d. 6) on the grounds that no one but Go...

(Encyclopedia) Fisher, Andrew, 1862–1928, Australian statesman. He emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1885, helped organize the Australian Labor party, and served three times as Labor prime minister of Austra...