>What are the legal definitions of a tax and a fee? It seems that the two
>terms are being used here interchangeably to suit individual arguments.
>There must be some objective criteria that applies to each.
See Thomas v. NSI and NSF, Civ. No. 98-5502 (D.C.C. May 14, 1999), and the
lower court decision in this case (which was available at one point at
www.aira.org/legal/. The lower court case has an exhaustive discussion on
the differences.
Drastically oversimplifying, a tax has an arbitrary relationship to the
activity while the fee has some relationship and is in part intended to pay
for the activity. The Thomas case discusses who may levy fees and taxes
under what circumstances, and what can be done with the revenues.
