--- title: Taxes and the government's budget — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Taxes and the government's budget», a lesson of the money course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Taxes are money that people and businesses must pay to the government, and they pay for things everybody shares: schools, hospitals, roads --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/) / Taxes and the government's budget # Taxes and the government's budget Lesson 36 of the money course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/0/) — Taxes are money that people and businesses must pay to the government, and they pay for things everybody shares: schools, hospitals, roads, bins and police. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/1/) — Picture your classroom: it was reported that each pupil in a state school costs about £7,000 a year, so a class of 30 costs about 30 × £7,000 = £210,000, and that money comes from everyone, through taxes. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/2/) — Some taxes are taken from wages, called income tax; some hide inside prices, like VAT, which is £2 of a £12 toy in the UK; and council tax pays for local things like potholes and bins. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/3/) — Each year the government plans its spending in a budget, and in the UK the minister in charge holds up a famous red box on budget day; if it spends more than it collects, it borrows, and its debt grows. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/5/) — Taxes are money paid to the government; public services are services for everyone, like schools, hospitals, roads and police. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/6/) — It was reported that a state school pupil costs roughly £7,000 a year, so a class of 30 costs about 30 × £7,000 = £210,000. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/8/) — Income tax is tax on what you earn; some money is tax-free, and on earnings above that the basic rate takes £1 of every £5, written 20%, so £200 of £1,000, because £1,000 ÷ 5 = £200. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/9/) — The government's budget is its plan for money; a deficit is spending more than it collects, like spending £100 and collecting £90, so it borrows £10. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/10/) — A tax cut leaves more money in people's pockets but less for public services; a tax rise does the opposite; people disagree about which is better. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/11/) — In the UK the NHS, the National Health Service, is paid for by taxes, so an X-ray and a cast cost £0 at the hospital even though they cost hundreds of pounds to provide; other countries have different systems. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/12/) — Councils use taxes to fix roads but money is limited; at about £75 a pothole, 100 potholes cost 100 × £75 = £7,500, so they must choose what comes first. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/13/) — People who earn more usually pay more tax in pounds and often a bigger share; someone on £20,000 might pay £2,000 and someone on £100,000 about £30,000. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/14/) — A progressive tax is one where richer people pay a bigger share; some say they should pay even more, others say it is already a lot. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/15/) — Paying tax is a legal duty; tax evasion, illegally not paying, can mean fines or prison; if 1 in 10 people didn't pay, about 1 in every 10 pounds of tax would be missing. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/16/) — The national debt is all the money a government has borrowed and still owes, and it must pay interest on it, just like a family with a loan. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/36-taxes-and-the-governments-budget/17/) — 1 trillion is 1,000 billion, which is 1,000,000 million. - ← previous: [Unemployment: when jobs are lost](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/35-unemployment-when-jobs-are-lost/) - next →: [Trade, tariffs, rich and poor countries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/37-trade-tariffs-rich-and-poor-countries/) - ↑ back to [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/)