This is a concept summary. It aims to show how different types of taxes are categorized, and to highlight the strong and weak points of each type.
Government is supported by resources drawn from the economy.
In return, government protects the economy from foreign and domestic enemies, undertakes large-scale infrastructure works of general benefit, and enforces the rights, obligations and bargains necessary for economic activity in a civil society. In modern industrial society, a tax either claims a portion of the flow of value in economic transactions between people, or takes a part of someone's accumulated stock of economic value. Examples include the political office lotteries of classic Greek democracy, the French road building corvees under Louis XIV, and the reconstruction of the Great Wall under the Ming Dynasty. Wealth taxes, on the other hand, tax accumulations rather than transfers. A common example is a property tax, which in modern US use falls largely on real estate.