the difference among tax, tariffs, duties

[kjc0123]

What is the difference among tax, tariffs, duties?

[ursula62]

They all mean roughly the same thing - if you look up tax in a thesaurus you will find tarriffs and duties in the list of synonyms, but tarriff and duty are used in specific circumstances.

Generally tax is something everyone pays, e.g. income tax, value added tax. It is universal, a compulsory contribution towards a country's expenses raised by the government from people's salaries, property and from the sale of goods and services.

A Tarriff is a charge imposed either by a hotel on top of the bill (which would already include taxes) or tax/duty paid on imported or exported goods. Sometimes the word "tariff" is also used to describe the list of items payable in a hotel, e.g. the cost of phone calls or the items in the minibar; or the list of duty rates payable at customs.

A Duty is a tax, mainly paid on imported goods.

[ah9815]

Tax and duty are almost the same in meaning. However, duty often refers to a tax payable to the government on imports.

A tariff can also be a tax. However, you can also get tariffs which are often not set, e.g., telephone tariffs where a phone call in the evening will have a lower tariff than a call in the day ( a charge). Companies can set tariffs and these are not paid to the government, unlike tax and duty, which are.

In general though, all three words are closely linked. A tariff can also be a charge on goods entering a country (imports), like duty.

[Bangkok]

Customs duty is a tariff on imported goods and is part of the tax revenue of the Government (except it's not as 90% goes to the EU!).  In trade, tariff are financial barriers and duty is the financial cost payable to the competant authority.

[Kingaroo]

some of the exampoles given for use of "tarriff" do not seem like common American usage to me.