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income tax

American  

noun

  • income taxes
    plural
  1. a tax levied on incomes, especially an annual government tax on personal incomes.


income tax British  

noun

  1. a personal tax, usually progressive, levied on annual income subject to certain deductions

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of income tax

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

On the other hand, Larson would reduce the income tax on Social Security earnings, returning a bit to middle- and lower-income workers.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 18, 2026

That’s because many lower-income households owe little or no federal income tax, so they can’t profit from the tax breaks.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 14, 2026

If they move to Florida, Tennessee, Texas or another state with no income tax, they keep 60 cents instead of 46.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 12, 2026

Missouri now has a graduated income tax, from 2% to 4.7%.

From MarketWatch Aug. 5, 2026

I had observed my father making his way through what, I now suppose, must have been income tax forms.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

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