Reading comprehension

48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Make up the summary of the text using the questions to organize your answer:

1. When and why did Tsar Peter the Great establish a tax on beard?

2. How did the Tsar act towards his servants with high social or political status at the official reception party?

3. Why were the guest terrified, filled with resentments after the official meeting?

4. Who conserved the right to carry a beard?

5. Why did the Tsar introduce a special token? What could be seen on the either side of the token?

6. How long did the unpopular decree remain in place?

Vocabulary notes

westernize европеизировать

chop зд. менять

assume предполагать

resentment чувство обиды

obey подчиниться

graceful зд. доставляющий удовольствие

virility and masculinity мужественность и смелость

sin грех

in vogue в моде

rebel бунтовать

clergymen and monks священники и монахи

negotiants купцы

compel принуждать

abolish упразднять

UNIT 9

PART 1

TOPIC FOCUS: An Excise

Discuss these questions with a partner.

1. What is an excise tax?

2. When did it start?

3. What can excises achieve that other taxes cannot?

Exercise 1.

Practice reading the following words and collocations.

a) alcohol; arguably; attorney; electricity; excise; fuel; geographically; legislation; licenses; occupation; percentage; pollute; privilege; proportional; statute;therefore; whereas;

b) ad valorem; cirrhosis of the liver; competitive distortions; constitutional law; customs duties; currency conversions; excisable goods; narrower range of products; license fee; oil refineries and alcohol distillers; per unit; significant revenue; statutory law;swathes of the population;

c) be delegated to; be distinguished from; be subject to; refer to; vary considerably.

An excise or excise tax (sometimes called a special excise duty) is an inland tax on the sale, or production for sale, of specific goods or a tax on a good produced for sale, or sold, within a country or licenses for specific activities. Excises are distinguished from customs duties, which are taxes on importation. Excises are inland taxes, whereas customs duties are border taxes.

An excise is considered an indirect tax, meaning that the producer or seller who pays the tax to the government is expected to try to recover or shift the tax by raising the price paid by the buyer. Excises are typically imposed in addition to another indirect tax such as a sales tax or value added tax (VAT). In common terminology (but not necessarily in law), an excise is distinguished from a sales tax or VAT in three ways:

1. an excise typically applies to a narrower range of products;

2. an excise is typically heavier, accounting for a higher fraction of the retail price of the targeted products;

3. an excise is typically a per unit tax, costing a specific amount for a volume or unit of the item purchased, whereas a sales tax or VAT is an ad valorem tax and proportional to the price of the good.

Tobacco, alcohol and gasoline are the three main targets of excise taxation in most countries around the world. They are everyday items of mass usage (even, arguably, "necessity") which bring significant revenue for governments. The first two are considered to be legal drugs, which are a cause of many illnesses (e.g. lung cancer, cirrhosis of the liver), which are used by large swathes of the population, both being widely recognized as addictive. Gasoline (or petrol), as well as diesel and other fuels, meanwhile, despite being indispensable to modern life, have excise tax imposed on them mainly because they pollute the environment and raise funds to support the transportation infrastructure.

Exercise 2.

In the text, find the answers to the following questions.

1. What tax can be considered as an excise?

2. What is the difference between excises and customs duties?

3. Is an excise considered as a direct tax? Why? Why not?

4. Give some reasons to distinguish an excise from VAT or a sales tax.

5. What goods are the aims of an excise?

6. Why have such goods been selected? Give some examples.

Exercise 3. Find a word in the text that matches each definition below. The words appear in order.

1. (two words) A tax on some types of goods such as alcohol, cigarettes, or petrol paid to a national or state government. __________

2. An official permission to do or to have something __________

3. Happening in addition to an intended result, often in a way that is complicated or not obvious __________

4. To move something to a different place or position __________

5. To notice or understand the difference between two things, or to make one person or thing seem different from another __________

6. (two words) The price that customers pay for goods in stores __________

7. A single object, especially one that is for sale or is bought __________

8. Result, level, or situation that an organization or group wants or plans to achieve

__________

9. Having an effect on or involving a large number of people __________

10. Without taking any notice of or being influenced by; not prevented by

__________

Exercise 4. Sentence completion.

Read the sentences and complete them with the following words.

income constitutional sin taxes activity

statutory goods person manufactured

1. A percentage levied on manufacture, sale, or use of locally produced _______ (such as alcoholic drinks or tobacco products).

2. In India, almost all _________ products are included for excise duty.

3. A percentage tax levied on a company’s revenue, instead of (like income tax) on the company’s ________.

4. Canada has some of the highest rates of taxes on cigarettes and alcohol in the world. These are sometimes referred to as _________.

5. A fixed tax levied on an _________ or occupation, such as the license fee charged from attorneys, doctors, and other professionals. Also called excise tax.

6. In the United States, the term “excise” has at least two meanings:

(A) any tax other than a property tax or capitation (i.e., an excise is an indirect tax in the __________ law sense);

(B) a tax that is simply called an excise in the language of the statute imposing that tax (an excise in the ________ law sense).

7. Capitation is charge, fee or a tax levied on per head (per _______) basis.

Exercise 5. Text completion.

A) Read this article about excise duties in the EU in which some sentences are missing.

General overview

________________ (1). As tax controls at the borders between Member States were abolished, common rules were needed to facilitate cross-border trade in certain products and to prevent competitive distortions. Therefore, EU legislation was adopted to ensure that excise duties for certain products were applied in the same way, and to the same products throughout the Single Market, and that Member States applied (at least) a minimum rate of excise duty.

In the EU, Member States must apply excise duties to: