Excise - Definition

Definition

Etymology. The word excise is derived from the Dutch accijns, which is presumed to come from the Latin accensare, meaning simply "to tax".

Regulatory and legal definitions of 'excise' vary by country. For example:

  • In India, an excise is described as an indirect tax levied and collected on the goods manufactured in India.
  • In the United Kingdom, HM Revenue and Customs lists "alcohol, environmental taxes, gambling, holdings & movements, hydrocarbon oil, money laundering, refunds of duty, revenue trader's records, tobacco duty, and visiting forces" as being subject to excise. Some of the listed items are not goods, but rather services.
  • The Australian Taxation Office describes an excise as "a tax levied on certain types of goods produced or manufactured in Australia. These... include alcohol, tobacco and petroleum and alternative fuels".

In Australia, the meaning of "excise" is not merely academic, but has been the subject of numerous court cases. The High Court of Australia has repeatedly held that a tax can be an "excise" regardless of whether the taxed goods are of domestic or foreign origin; most recently, in Ha v New South Wales (1997), the majority of the Court endorsed the view that an excise is "an inland tax on a step in production, manufacture, sale or distribution of goods", and took a wide view of the kind of "step" which, if subject to a tax, would make the tax an excise.

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