income tax

American  

noun

• income taxes
  plural

1. a tax levied on incomes, especially an annual government tax on personal incomes.

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income tax British  

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• income taxes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of income tax

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

income tax

If it does rise by 3.9%, it would take the flat-rate state pension above the personal allowance of £12,570 and therefore be liable for income tax.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

Ed, now 61, was especially eager to move to a state with no personal income tax.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

Your mother would not be restricted by the terms of the 529 plan, which comes with a 10% penalty and ordinary income tax if the funds are withdrawn for something other than educational expenses.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

Reform estimates that increasing the threshold by £2,430 would save most taxpayers £500 a year and 2.9 million people would stop paying income tax altogether.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

For years after graduate school, she wrote down poet under profession in questionnaires and income tax forms, and later amended it to writer-slash-teacher.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez