Indirect Taxes

taxes included in the sales price of consumer commodities and paid indirectly by the consumer in the purchase of goods. Indirect taxes existed in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. They have become widespread under capitalism, serving as one of the basic revenue sources of bourgeois states. The main burden of indirect taxes falls on the working masses. In socialist countries, indirect taxes in the form of excise duties were temporarily used by the proletarian state during the transition period from capitalism to socialism.