Excise Tax in The United States - Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law

The U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1789, gave the federal government authority to tax, stating that Congress has the power to

"... lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States."

Tariffs between states are prohibited by the U.S. Constitution and all domestically made products can be imported or shipped to another state tax free. In the U.S. constitutional law sense, an excise tax is essentially an event tax (as opposed to a state of being tax).