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Volume 1
- Budget Message
- Issues in Brief
- Budget Recommendations
- Local Aid to Cities and Towns
- Capital Budget and Debt
Volume 2
Tax Expenditure Glossary
- AMORTIZATION:
- Annual deduction allowed for the gradual exhaustion or obsolescence of intangible assets having a limited useful life which are used in the production of income, such as patents and copyrights; analogous to depreciation of tangible assets.
- CAPITAL EXPENDITURE:
- An expenditure made in acquiring, adding to or bettering a fixed asset. For accounting purposes, capital expenditures are not charged against current revenue. They are added to capital account or "capitalized" and then may be depreciated; amortized, or recovered when a business is sold. This concept should be distinguished from an expense.
- CREDIT:
- Amount by which a taxpayer is allowed to reduce a tax liability, as computed by applying the tax rates to the tax base, to be distinguished from a deduction from the tax base.
- DEDUCTION:
- Amount that a taxpayer is allowed to subtract from the gross tax base.
- DEPRECIATION:
- Annual deduction allowed for the gradual exhaustion or obsolescence of tangible property used in the production of income.
- EXCLUSION:
- The legal elimination from the tax base of items recognized as falling within its definition. The federal term for what is sometimes called an exemption for Massachusetts. (See below.)
- EXEMPTION:
- The legal elimination from the tax base of items or transactions recognized as falling within its definition, or of taxable units that would normally be subject to tax.
- EXPENSE:
- A revenue expenditure or cost, which, for accounting purposes, is charged against current revenue. To be distinguished from a capital expenditure.
- GROSS INCOME:
- The total of all items included in the concept of income that a taxpayer receives during the taxable period.
- NET INCOME:
- Amount remaining after subtracting exempt income and deductions from gross income.
- PERSONAL EXEMPTION:
- A specific amount or percentage of net income on which the tax rate is zero. To be distinguished from an exemption as defined above, which applies to a class of income or taxpayers. Sometimes called an "allowance".
- TAXABLE INCOME:
- Amount to which the tax rates are applied in computing tax liability, after subtracting personal exemptions from net income.
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