Tax is a payment collected by the government from citizens or businesses in order to fund public services 💰

Think of it as a mandatory fee everyone pays each year that allows us all to live in a country, instead of fending for ourselves 🤝

The money collected from taxes is then used by the government to pay for public services such as defense, infrastructure, and social security 🗺

Tax can be collected in multiple forms, such as sales, income, and property taxes 💱

In general, whenever an individual or business makes money -- whether through salary, profits or sales -- the government collects a percentage of the money as taxes 🎩

Taxes are also collected by different entities: in the US, there is often both a Federal tax, which goes to the Federal government, as well as a state tax, which goes to the state you live in and often varies state to state 🇺🇸

If you're like most Americans, the biggest tax payment you need to make each year is income tax, which is the tax collected on the income from your job 💰

So now you know that taxes are payments to the government for the services that keep your country going ⚙️

Next, let's learn about how the government decides the amount of tax you pay based on how much money you make!