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Tobacco tax revenues, for example, might be spent on government anti-smoking campaigns, or healthcare for cancer, heart disease, vascular disease, lung disease, and so on.
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Monies raised through excise may be earmarked for redress of specific social costs commonly associated with the product or service on which it is levied. socially damaging / morally objectionable activity (thus making it a type of vice tax or sin tax) usually this includes gambling, and can include prostitution (including solicitation and pimping) in places where it is legal.environmental damage (thus acting as a green tax) this usually includes fossil fuels (such as petrol).health risks from abusing toxic substances (thus making it a kind of sumptuary tax) typically this includes tobacco and alcohol.Īs a deterrent, excise is typically directed towards three broad categories of harm: A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid. In defense of excises on strong drink, Adam Smith wrote: "It has for some time past been the policy of Great Britain to discourage the consumption of spirituous liquors, on account of their supposed tendency to ruin the health and to corrupt the morals of the common people." Samuel Johnson was less flattering in his 1755 dictionary:ĮXCI'SE. Public safety and health, public morals, environmental protection, and national defense are all rationales for the imposition of an excise. Although the affected tenancies were limited in number, the excise was levied more generally at the time, there was thought to be a rough correspondence between the wealthy manufacturers of affected goods, and the wealthy tenants of royal land.Įxcise duties or taxes continued to serve political as well as financial ends. In the British Isles, upon the Restoration of the Monarchy, many of the Puritan social restrictions were overturned, but excise was re-introduced, under the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, in lieu of rent, for tenancies of royally-owned land which had not already become socage. Typical examples of excise duties are taxes on gasoline and other fuels and taxes on tobacco and alcohol (sometimes referred to as sin tax).Įxcise is derived from the Dutch accijns, which is presumed to come from the Latin accensare, meaning simply "to tax".Įxcise was introduced in the mid 17th century under the Puritan regime. an excise is typically heavier, accounting for a higher fraction of the retail price of the targeted products.an excise typically applies to a narrow range of products, and.an excise is typically a per unit tax, costing a specific amount for a volume or unit of the item purchased, whereas a sales tax or value-added tax is an ad valorem tax and proportional to the price of the goods,.Typically, an excise is distinguished from a sales tax or VAT in three ways: Excises are typically imposed in addition to an indirect tax such as a sales tax or value-added tax (VAT). Excises are often associated with customs duties (which are levied on pre-existing goods when they cross a designated border in a specific direction) customs are levied on goods that become taxable items at the border, while excise is levied on goods that came into existence inland.Īn excise is considered an indirect tax, meaning that the producer or seller who pays the levy to the government is expected to try to recover their loss by raising the price paid by the eventual buyer of the goods.
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Īn excise, or excise tax, is any duty on manufactured goods that is levied at the moment of manufacture rather than at sale. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the bung of the beer barrel so when the barrel was tapped it would destroy the stamp.