The term 'taxation' comes from Latin word 'Taxatio'. It means
to determine the payable income quantum of estimate. Taxing authority
determines tax to be payable by the assessee. So tax is the revenue
collected by the government from persons and organizations under
different taxing Acts. In other words, it is a liability imposed upon a
assessee who may be individuals, groups of individuals and other legal
entities.
According to Justice Holmes - "The price paid to the government for living in a civilized society is the tax."
According to Taylor - "Taxes are the compulsory payments to government without expectation of direct benefit to the tax payer."
That
is, it is not a price paid by the tax-payer for any definite service
from the government but no tax-payer has a right to any expenditure on
the ground that is paying a tax. The benefits of public expenditure may
go to anyone irrespective of the taxes paid. Hence, a tax is said to be a
generalized exaction (E.F Plank). Thus plank definite tax as as "Taxes
are general compulsory contribution of wealth, levied upon
personal-natural or corporate, to defray the expenses incurred in
conferring common benefit, upon the resident of the state." Here it
may be noted that a public receipt containing an element of compulsion
does not automatically become a tax. In order to be a tax, the absence
of a quid pro quo is necessary. As we shall see, the
element of compulsion exists in case of some other
public receipts also. Thus to be tax both compulsion and no
benefit elements are to be present.