--- title: Taxes and local councils: bins, roads and schools — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Taxes and local councils: bins, roads and schools», a lesson of the politics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Taxes are the money people and businesses must pay to the government, and they pay for the shared things everyone uses: --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/) [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/) / [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/) / Taxes and local councils: bins, roads… # Taxes and local councils: bins, roads and schools Lesson 8 of the politics 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/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/0/) — Taxes are the money people and businesses must pay to the government, and they pay for the shared things everyone uses: schools, hospitals, roads, street lights, bins, libraries and police. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/1/) — Some tax hides in shop prices: in most US states sales tax is added at the till, so a $10 toy costs a bit more, while in the UK a tax called VAT is already inside the price on the label. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/2/) — Your local council is the government closest to your door: it empties the bins before the foxes have a party, fills potholes, lights the streets and runs parks and libraries, paid partly by council tax from every home. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/3/) — Money is always limited, so councils must choose: fix this road or that one, keep the library open on Saturdays or pay for care for old people; when money is short, people notice bins, potholes and closed libraries first. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/4/) — Big countries are split into parts with their own leaders, like US governors and Canadian or Australian premiers, and grown-ups argue at Sunday lunch about whether taxes should be lower so people keep more money, or higher so there are better services. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/5/) — Tax is money people and businesses must pay to the government; it pays for public services everyone can use. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/6/) — In most US states, sales tax is added at the till rather than shown on the label; it pays for things like roads, police and schools. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/7/) — In the UK, VAT (Value Added Tax) is already included in the price; on many things it is a fifth of the price, and most food and children's clothes have no VAT. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/8/) — A local council runs things like bin collections, street lights, parks and libraries; it is paid partly by council tax, which each home pays, and partly by the national government. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/9/) — Small roads are often looked after by the council and big roads by the region or national government; fixing them costs a lot, so councils choose which potholes to fill first. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/11/) — A mayor leads a town or city; some mayors are mostly for ceremonies, while elected mayors, like those of London or New York, have real power over things like buses and police. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/12/) — Each US state has a governor; each Canadian province and each Australian state has a premier; they run things like schools and hospitals, while the national government runs things like the army. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/13/) — Council meetings are usually open to the public, and people can sometimes speak or ask questions; councillors are elected to the council and vote on things like parks and roads. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/14/) — Lower taxes leave people more of their own money; higher taxes can pay for more services; different parties choose different mixes. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/15/) — In many parts of the USA, schools are paid for partly by property tax on houses in the area, so richer areas can raise more; states and the national government add money to try to make it fairer. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/8-taxes-and-local-councils-bins-roads-and-schools/16/) — Some people say sales tax is fair because everyone pays when they spend; others say it hits poorer families harder because they spend most of what they have. - ← previous: [The King, the courts and the rules above the rules](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules/) - next →: [Around the English-speaking world: Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/9-around-the-english-speaking-world-canada-australia-ireland-new-zealand/) - ↑ back to [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/)