A tax whose amount is not affected by the tax-payer's actions, or at least by some aspects of them. In the UK, for example, a television licence is only payable by those who have a TV set, but its amount does not depend on whether they have a new and large or an old and small TV. A completely lump-sum tax would be a poll tax payable by all residents. Because it is impossible to extract much from the poorest members of society, actual taxes usually contain escape clauses which do make paying the tax something the taxpayer can influence by their own conduct. The UK Community Charge, for example, had lower rates for some groups and exemption for others. The advantage claimed for lump-sum taxes is that they do not distort incentives at the margin. This is paid for by the fact that they are highly regressive in their distributive effects, collecting the largest proportion of incomes from the poorest taxpayers.

• exchange rate regime
• exchange restrictions
• excise duty
• exclusion
• exclusive dealing
• ex dividend
• executive, chief
• exercise price
• exhaustible resources
• Eximbank
• exit
• exit, freedom of
• exit price
• exogenous expectations
• expectations
• expectations-augmented Phillips curve
• expectations, model-consistent
• expected inflation
• expected utility
• expected value
• expenditure
• expenditure-based deflator
• expenditure changing
• expenditure method
• expenditure, public