Tax vs. Toll — What's the Difference?

A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures. A failure to pay, along with evasion of or resistance to taxation, is punishable by law.

A charge payable to use a bridge or road

A compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions

The number of deaths or casualties arising from a natural disaster, conflict, accident, etc.

A strain or heavy demand

A single ring of a bell

Impose a tax on (someone or something)

Charge a toll for the use of (a bridge or road)

Make heavy demands on (someone's powers or resources)

(with reference to a bell) sound or cause to sound with a slow, uniform succession of strokes, as a signal or announcement

Confront (someone) with a fault or wrongdoing

A fixed charge or tax for a privilege, especially for passage across a bridge or along a road.

Examine and assess (the costs of a case)

A charge for a service, such as a telephone call to another country.

A contribution for the support of a government required of persons, groups, or businesses within the domain of that government.

An amount or extent of loss or destruction, as of life, health, or property

A fee or dues levied on the members of an organization to meet its expenses.

The act of tolling.

A burdensome or excessive demand; a strain.

The sound of a bell being struck.

To place a tax on (income, property, or goods).

To exact as a toll.

To exact a tax from

To charge a fee for using (a structure, such as a bridge).

(Law) To assess (court costs, for example).

To sound (a large bell) slowly at regular intervals.

To make difficult or excessive demands upon

To announce or summon by tolling.

To accuse; confront

To sound in slowly repeated single tones.

To hold accountable

A fee paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, etc.

Money paid to the government other than for transaction-specific goods and services.

Loss or damage incurred through a disaster.

A burdensome demand.

(business) A fee for using any kind of material processing service.

A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject.

(US) A tollbooth.

(obsolete) charge; censure

A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.

(transitive) To impose and collect a tax from (a person or company).

A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding.

(transitive) To impose and collect a tax on (something).

The act or sound of tolling.

(transitive) To make excessive demands on.

(transitive) To impose a fee for the use of.

(transitive) To accuse.

(ambitransitive) To levy a toll on (someone or something).

(transitive) To examine accounts in order to allow or disallow items.

(transitive) To take as a toll.

A charge, especially a pecuniary burden which is imposed by authority.

To pay a toll or tallage.

A charge or burden laid upon persons or property for the support of a government.

(ergative) To ring (a bell) slowly and repeatedly.

A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject.

(transitive) To summon by ringing a bell.

Especially, the sum laid upon specific things, as upon polls, lands, houses, income, etc.; as, a land tax; a window tax; a tax on carriages, and the like.

(transitive) To announce by tolling.

A disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; as, a heavy tax on time or health.

(figuratively) To make a sound as if made by a bell.

A sum imposed or levied upon the members of a society to defray its expenses.

To draw; pull; tug; drag.

Charge; censure.

(transitive) To tear in pieces.

A lesson to be learned; a task.

(transitive) To draw; entice; invite; allure.

To subject to the payment of a tax or taxes; to impose a tax upon; to lay a burden upon; especially, to exact money from for the support of government.

(transitive) To lure with bait; tole (especially, fish and animals).

To assess, fix, or determine judicially, the amount of; as, to tax the cost of an action in court.

To take away; to vacate; to annul.

To charge; to accuse; also, to censure; - often followed by with, rarely by of before an indirect object; as, to tax a man with pride.

(legal) To suspend.

Charge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government

To take away; to vacate; to annul.

Levy a tax on;

To draw; to entice; to allure. See Tole.

Set or determine the amount of (a payment such as a fine)

To cause to sound, as a bell, with strokes slowly and uniformly repeated; as, to toll the funeral bell.

Use to the limit;

To strike, or to indicate by striking, as the hour; to ring a toll for; as, to toll a departed friend.

Make a charge against or accuse;

To call, summon, or notify, by tolling or ringing.

To sound or ring, as a bell, with strokes uniformly repeated at intervals, as at funerals, or in calling assemblies, or to announce the death of a person.

To pay toll or tallage.

To take toll; to raise a tax.

To collect, as a toll.

The sound of a bell produced by strokes slowly and uniformly repeated.

A tax paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, or the like.

A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.

A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding.

A fee levied for the use of roads or bridges (used for maintenance)

Value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something;

The sound of a bell being struck;

Ring slowly;

Charge a fee for using;