“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin famously said almost three centuries ago. Social systems, economies and technologies have changed, but we have still not managed to outsmart death or taxes.

Tax is undoubtedly one of the most dreaded words in almost every language. In Croatian, however, there is also a somewhat more palatable, legally established umbrella term: public charges.

Perhaps we would take a more conciliatory view of taxes and other public charges if we did not see them merely as something that is taken from us or imposed on us, but as something we ourselves give, knowing whom we give it to and what that contribution is intended to achieve.

Under the Croatian General Tax Act, public charges include taxes, customs duties, fees and contributions, along with certain other charges. But do we really know how to distinguish between them? And if we are not sure what they mean in Croatian, how can we be sure that we have named them correctly in English?

What exactly are we giving?

Tax is a monetary payment made by individuals and businesses to the state to finance public needs, such as education, healthcare, social programmes and infrastructure. And we often realise just how important public services are when they suddenly disappear. The current strike by workers at Zagreb Electric Tram- ZET and Zagreb Holding has made this painfully clear: when trams and buses almost stop running and waste collection is severely restricted, it quickly becomes obvious what a public service actually means.

Taxes, however, are not the only form of monetary payment.

Customs duty is a charge payable on imports and, where applicable, exports. In English, it is easy to get lost among the terms customs, tariff and duty: customs most commonly refers to the customs authority, system or procedure; customs duty to the specific charge imposed on imported goods; and tariff to a customs tariff, i.e. the rates applicable to particular products.

Fee is a monetary charge prescribed for a specific official act or service, or for the use of a public good. When translating the term, we often need to clarify what kind of fee we mean – for example, Croatia’s public broadcasting fee is a TV licence fee, while a notarial charge is a notarial statutory fee.

Contribution is a payment made to finance a system from which we acquire certain entitlements, such as pension or health insurance.

Within the category of taxes, the variety of terminology runs amok: input tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and windfall tax are just some of the terms in the colourful vocabulary of taxation.

Excise duties are particularly interesting. They are not taxes on everything we “consume”, but specific taxes imposed on certain products, such as alcohol, tobacco products and fuel. In addition to generating revenue for the state budget, excise duties may also serve health, social or environmental purposes: by increasing the price of certain products, governments seek to discourage their consumption. In English, such taxes are informally referred to as sin taxes – a vivid term for taxes intended, among other things, to influence our habits.

What if we don't want to give?

A distinction must be made between lawful and unlawful conduct: tax avoidance refers to the lawful use of tax rules to reduce a tax liability, i.e. tax avoidance, while tax evasion always refers to the unlawful avoidance of paying taxes.

Then there are tax havens and offshore accounts. These terms do not, in themselves, imply anything illegal, but a number of well-known and highly publicised cases have created a familiar association with questionable and, at times, unlawful financial arrangements: billionaires, remote islands, secret accounts and money tucked away “out of sight”.

Sometimes we may try to conceal what we give, sometimes to avoid giving altogether, and sometimes – when states are involved – to respond with countermeasures.

Retaliatory tariffs are precisely such an example – tariffs imposed by one state in response to what it considers unreasonable tariffs imposed by another. The term has become particularly topical recently in the context of Trump’s tariff threats and other countries’ announcements of countermeasures, turning tariffs into a tool of trade warfare.

We can be certain about taxes. Whether we always understand them clearly and translate them correctly is another matter entirely. And perhaps the problem is not really the language at all: the less we understand what we give, the less we can understand what that contribution is meant to achieve and what we receive in return. Because it is difficult to translate something accurately when we do not fully understand it ourselves.

This article was originally published on the  Women in Adria portal on 1 October 2026. You can read it HERE.