Cess is a British English and Hiberno-English term for a tax. It is a term formerly more particularly applied to local taxation, and was the official term used in Ireland when it was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; otherwise, it has been superseded by "rate".
In colonial India it was applied, with a qualifying prefix, to any taxation, such as irrigation-cess, educational-cess, and the like. They are collectively referred to as "cesses" in government censuses, e.g. "land revenue and cesses".
In Scotland, it refers to the property tax which was enacted in Scotland in 1665 and continued to be levied through the 18th century.
The term is a shortened form of "assess"; the spelling is due to a mistaken connection with census.