BENEFIT PRINCIPLE: A principle of taxation in which taxes are based on the benefits received by people using the good financed with the tax. The benefit principle is often difficult to implement because by their very nature, many government produced goods (public goods) do not have easily measured benefits. But in those cases where benefits are identifiable, government is not shy about establishing taxes, fees, or charges in accordance with the benefit principle. Public college tuition, national park admission fees, and gasoline excise taxes are three common examples. The beneficiaries of education, a wilderness experience, and highway use are asked (required) to pay accordingly.

     See also | principle | taxes | government | public good | excise tax | user charge | ability-to-pay principle |

BENEFIT PRINCIPLE, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: July 18, 2025].

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A curve that graphically represents the relation between total fixed cost incurred by a firm in the short-run product of a good or service and the quantity produced. This curve is constructed to capture the relation between total fixed cost and the level of output, holding other variables, like technology and resource prices, constant. Because total fixed cost are, in fact, fixed, the total fixed cost curve is, in fact, a horizontal line. The total fixed cost curve is one of three total cost curves, the other two are total cost curve and total variable cost curve.

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