Difference between Tax and Fee

Generally a tax is assessed on usage or purchase of something (like Sales Tax, Gasoline Tax) or on value (Property tax, Income tax) in which many of the payees don't necessarily directly benefit.

A fee is purports to be the cost of a specific service provided. The general principle is that everything costs something and for fees, the users of that service are bearing full cost of the service cost.

Actually fees are the opposite of taxation without justification, they are directly justified and auditable. It is conceivable that at some point we would be assessed a cost for all services used (like a restaurant bill at the end of a meal) but then the outcry would be at the "superrich" living overseas and not paying taxes. At the end of the day, be happy you were one of the 0.2% or so lucky enough to be born in the greatest country in the world, and pay your fair share.

“fee” - a charge voluntarily exchanged for a service rendered or a benefit conferred, the amount of which charge bears a reasonable relationship to the value of the service rendered or benefit conferred and which charge serves a regulatory purpose rather than a revenue raising purpose.

“tax” - a charge or exaction that is imposed primarily for a public purpose rather than a private purpose and that is designed to raise revenue.

Wikipedia makes a point to define the deceptive use of the word “fee” instead of “tax”: “Sometimes fee is used to whitewash what are actually penalties or taxes. For example, Virginia's now-repealed Civil Remedial Fees were actually a tax on drivers with certain kinds of traffic law violations.”

The distinction is in the connotation of the words. This is why supporters of apartments insist on calling them “multi-family housing.