These words pertain to a government’s exacting of money or other forms of support from its citizens or those dealing with them. Tax is the most general and least formal of these. It refers almost exclusively to the raising of money, although this may be done through a variety of means: the average citizen who ends up being taxed according to his income, general purchases, real-estate holdings, buying of imported goods ?and even his amusements and luxuries. One of the points of tax is its emphasis on the actual collection of money. This contrasts with assess , which points to a determining of the basis for taxing someone; the reference of the word now is usually to the taxing of real estate: assessing his property at a higher valuation because of improvements he had made on it. In related uses, the word may refer also to determining the amount of a fine: damages assessed by the court at $10,000.

Impose may suggest the determining of fines, punishment or taxes in individual cases: imposing stiff fines on drunken drivers; imposing a light sentence on a first offender. More closely related to tax is its reference to a governmental decision, general in nature, to tap new sources of revenue or support: imposing additional taxes on business expansion; imposing national service on young men of 20. When its emphasis is on determination rather than collection, it is like assess, except for its indication of a general decision. A legislative body might impose terms concerning the amount and source of new revenue, after which each affected person might be assessed and then taxed accordingly. Impose in these senses has neutral force, but it can easily be given overtones of repressive or arbitrary wilfulness: a staggering burden of taxation imposed on those who can least afford it; a policy of imposing heavy duties on certain imported commodities. Levy may sometimes he used to indicate determination, like assess or impose , but more appropriately, as its root suggests, it refers to the actual raising ?that is, the collection or exaction of the amount assessed or the duty imposed : a stabilizing of prices when the new tax began to be levied ; army officers who levied troops and quarters from the defeated people by the most arbitrary means possible.