One of the more controversial attri

One of the more controversial attributes of a tax or tax system is visibility, or how obvious the amount of tax being paid is to taxpayers and others. Value-added taxes are typically low visibility because they are reflected in the quoted prices of goods, while retail sales taxes are much more visible because they are added to the quoted price at the time of purchase. However，people are not very aware of how much they pay annually in retail sales taxes because this type of tax is collected frequently and in small amounts. The painful visibility of income taxes ，likewise, is reduced by weekly or monthly withholding. Property taxes,in contrast, are extremely visible because they are usually collected in a lump sum once a year. In parts of the country where town meetings are held to vote on the local budget and the tax rate, taxes are also highly visible.