Rates

Governments use different kind of taxes and vary the tax rates:

 * to distribute the tax burden between individuals or classes of the population involved in taxable activities, such as business,
 * State Taxes to redistribute resources between individuals or classes in the population. Historically, the nobility were supported by taxes on the poor; modern social security systems are intended to support the poor, the disabled or the retired by taxes on those who are still working,
 * to influence the macroeconomic performance of the economy (the government's strategy for doing this is called its fiscal policy) (see also tax exemption),
 * to modify patterns of consumption or employment within an economy, by making some classes of transaction more or less attractive.