income tax

noun

: a tax on the net income of an individual or a business

Examples of income tax in a Sentence

Federal income tax will be deducted from your pay.

The new law will lower income taxes for most taxpayers.

Recent Examples on the Web

Unlike the income tax, though, the property tax is regressive, meaning its rate is not adjusted to reflect a payer’s earnings or wealth. — Keith M. Phaneuf, Hartford Courant, 22 Oct. 2026

The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit allows eligible taxpayers to receive a federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to qualifying scholarship granting organizations (SGOs). — Claudia Nachtigal, Baltimore Sun, 21 Oct. 2026

Those included the historically low top-income tax rate and the lowest corporate tax rate since 1940. — Markus Schneider, The Conversation, 20 Oct. 2026

But Marxists who dreamed of a workers’ republic could not compete with the reformers in Congress who enacted such measures as a progressive income tax, antitrust legislation, and a ban on child labor. — Michael Kazin, The New York Review of Books, 17 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1799, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for income tax

• anticlimax
• counterattacks
• hemothorax
• mesothorax
• metathorax
• almanacs
• carrybacks
• haversacks
• lumberjacks
• maniacs
• microcracks
• minimax

Kids Definition

income tax

noun

ˈin-(ˌ)kəm-

: a tax on the income of a person or business

Legal Definition

income tax

noun

: a tax on the net income of an individual or a business compare excise, property tax