Personal property taxes

 

Personal property taxes are imposed to tax personal property excluding vehicle or boat registration fees. There are other exceptions for such thing as food, clothing, or household goods. Household goods are exempt in the case they are kept and used within the household. An object may lose its exemption if it is regularly kept outside the household.
A tax payer is defined by law. It orders who is released from the tax burden and who is liable to pay a certain tax. However, the marketplace determines who pays the tax as tax system is closely connected with production costs. The mentioned costs depend on flexibility of supply and demand - how quantities supplied and demanded differ in price. Taxes can be paid by a seller through lower pre-tax prices, or by a buyer through higher post-tax prices. Low elasticity of supply causes that the supplier is liable to pay taxes. On the contrary, low elasticity of demand results in the customer` s duty to pay taxes. If a contradictory effect occurs and this elasticity is high the tax burden shifts to the factors of production including lowering workers` income. It influences capital investors in a sense of loss to shareholders, landowners and finally it affects entrepreneurs in the form of lower salaries of superintendence.
The history of taxation system can be dated the first known one which appeared around 3000BC-2800BC.
Taxes were imposed by the first dynasty of the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt. The historical records have revealed that the pharaoh conducted a biennial tour of the kingdom to collect tax revenues from the people.
Quite a few historical documents have proved the government tax collection in Europe since 17th century. Despite availability of these records the taxation levels can be barely compared to the size and flow of the economy because production numbers are not readily available. In the 17th century the economic situation in France was as follows: the government expenditures and revenue increased from 20 million livres in 1600 to about 60 million livres. The debts reached 150 million livres and at the turn of the centuries the government debt was 1.6 billion livres.
Probably the taxation as a definition of production of final goods may have reached 15%-20% during the 17th century in France, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. In the 18th and early 19th century Europe was destroyed by wars. As a consequence, tax rate increased dramatically because of expensive war as well as centralisation of government. The increase influenced the most dramatically England as the tax burden reach the point 85%. Another study states that per capita tax revenues grew six-fold over the 18th century. Actually, steady economic growth had resulted in the burden on each individual only double over this period before the industrial revolution started. Average tax rates were higher in Britain, but mostly placed on international trade. In comparison, France where the tax liability was chiefly on landowners, individuals, and internal trade caused far more resentment.
There were applied numerous kind of taxation throughout the history. A seigniorage was a form of taxation used in monetary economies. They are as follows:
" Aids a tax paid by a vassal to his lord during feudal times
" Danegeld a tax was imposed during the medieval times; it was charged on land, later it was used to fund military purposes
" Carucate this tax replaced the danegeld in England
" Scutage was paid instead of military service
" Tallage is a tax levied on feudal dependents
" Tithe a tax-like payment paid to the Church
" Tax farming determines the assigning the responsibility for tax revenue collection to private entities
It was common that windows, doors or cabinet were taxed to reduce consumption of imported goods. Sometimes taxes were used to enforce public policy.
Nowadays, the German taxation system is considered the most complicated one. The German taxation system consists of 118 laws, 185 forms and 96,000 regulations. It is needed €3.7 billion administration spends to collect income taxes. The governments of advanced economies of EU, North America impose direct taxes rather than indirect ones. Those are much more usual in developing economies such as India, or Africa.
Generally, taxation system is ordered and used by the government because it can be beneficial to society. Progressive taxation supports the economy of a particular state by providing an overall benefit to the majority and social justice. Some libertarians propose a minimal level of taxation in order to protect the liberty of individual sufficiently. Another movement prefers a different option; their aim is to establish private defence agencies as well as arbitration ones.
The explanation of the attempts to innovate the systems is that if the government is an executive body and there is a democracy in the state, then the decision how the tax system works should be made by the whole society. Contradictory, other movement, methodological individualism claims that society as a whole is not able to make such decisions. It is stated that the moral stature of any act does not automatically mean its legality or popularity. According to Jefferson: ``A democracy is nothing more than mob rule where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine''.
There are made several justifications for taxation. First, the justification is offered for taxation of business. To run business includes use of public economic infrastructure; as a result, businesses are charged for this use. Businesses are charged for the services which the government provides them with. According to libertarians, such taxes are a way for the majority to exploit business people. Compulsory taxation is justified for example by the social contract and territorial sovereignty.