As compulsory, unrequited payments to government taxes are the enforced proportional contributions from persons and property levied by the law-making body of the State by virtue of its sovereignty for the support of the government and all public needs. In modern economies taxes are the most important source of governmental revenue. Taxes differ from other sources of revenue in that they are compulsory levies and are unrequited i.e., they are generally not paid in exchange for some specific things, such as a particular public service, the sale of public property, or the issuance of public debt. While taxes are presumably collected for the welfare of taxpayers as a whole, the individual taxpayer’s liability is independent of any specific benefit received.