Child Tax, what is it?

Tax, what is it?

Tax is the money gathered by the government and then redistributed to people living in the same city or country, or to build roads, schools, parks and places that we couldn’t do without. The amount gathered depends on how much money people have.

Tax is money paid by:

- people who work or receive money from elsewhere: this is called ‘income tax’;
- people who own a property: this is called ‘property tax’;
- businesses: this is called ‘corporate tax’;

- activities that have an impact on the environment: this is called ‘environmental tax’;
- the money or belongings that are left to you after someone dies: this is called ‘inheritance tax’;
- people who buy products or services: this is called ‘Value Added Tax’ (VAT).

How do taxes impact my life?

When I go to a museum?
When I use pens and books at school?
When I take a bus to go somewhere?
When I ride my bike on a bike lane?
When I go to the hospital?

Without tax, there would be much less money to pay for these things.

Click on the activities above to see how taxes contributed.

museum

Think about all those beautiful paintings or dinosaur models. How do you think the museum pays for these? If there is an entrance fee, that helps. But it’s not enough! The rest is usually paid for through taxes.

school

When you go to school, you use material provided by teachers and play in playgrounds built by the school. Both are only possible because of tax.

bus

Public transport like buses, trams, the underground and trains are also paid for with money from tax.

bike lane

The people who build bike lanes are paid for with money collected as tax – and so are the tarmac and paint used to make them!

hospital

How hospitals are paid for is different in every country. But from building them to paying doctors and nurses and buying expensive equipment for research and treatment to save lives – money collected from tax is nearly always used.