I've agreed contractually that the phone company is authorized to raise my bill at their discretion and I am free to find another provider if I don't like their service or the price they are demanding. Is the phone company taxing me? I would say not. It is important to define by essentials, characteristics that uniquely identify and distinguish the concept from all other concepts, even from similar concepts. I submit that the distinguishing, essential characteristic which distinguishes a tax from any other type of transaction is that it is rooted somehow in some corporate entity's authority (legitimacy debatable) to initiate force against otherwise peaceful and non-rights-violating individuals. In other words, taxation is the province of organizations presumed to enjoy some exception to the Golden Rule. Governments tax but the Mafia extorts. What is the distinction? Government is believed to have the authority to commit the rights violations that it does; the Mafia is, even though it is sometimes more successful in its predations than government, is not perceived to have any such legal or moral authority for what it does. The phone company does not tax because the transaction is voluntary and the service provision market is open to (relatively) free entry.