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The tag is on about 200 questions dealing with numerous different concepts, languages, and problems. It only refers to a real-world domain that use cases for coding deal with, and adds no useful information to questions.

"a financial charge or other levy imposed upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a state or the functional equivalent of a state to fund various public expenditures."

Does it describe the contents of the questions to which it is applied? and is it unambiguous?

No, since there are numerous taxes in numerous countries all over the world working on entirely different rulings.

Is the concept described even on-topic for the site?

No, dealing with taxes is at most a use case for coding, but then almost every concept in the real world can be.

Does the tag add any meaningful information to the post?

No it just tells you the use case has something to do with taxes, but what exactly? Determine how much needs to be paid? How to save tax money? As you see questions like these are off-topic for Stack Overflow.

Does it mean the same thing in all common contexts?

No, since there are a lot of different taxes in any country in the world.

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  • 12
    "there are numerous taxes in numerous countries all over the world working on entirely different rulings." while this is true, the actual mechanics of how you apply a tax are not numerous. Quite limited. Only the numbers change. This argument seems a bit like saying "programming shouldn't deal with time zones because there are so many possible ones". In theory - yes, you can have from +00:01 through to +23:59 and the equivalent for the negative ones. That comes out to 2879 possibilities (if we don't consider seconds). But we don't have that many. Nor do we care for the numbers.
    – VLAZ
    Commented May 16 at 14:56
  • 6
    "Does it mean the same thing in all common contexts?" but it does mean the same thing. Applying a tax doesn't care what the tax is. Just how to apply it. You can apply some shipping tax (flat) or VAT (percentage). Unless you can show me that each question is about specific tax policy as in "I need to calculate the dog tax in Sealand" or "What taxes are involved when selling carrots upside-down in baker's dozens after midnight in Luxemburg". The application of taxes is well-understood topic. And a lot more narrow than "name every tax available".
    – VLAZ
    Commented May 16 at 15:00
  • 17
    I do fail to see what value it adds though. What difference does it make if it's a tax or some other number? Maybe it should just be a synonym of numbers or math or something
    – Zoe - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented May 16 at 15:20
  • 10
    tax isn't a programming concept. It wouldn't be taught as part of a computing based course.
    – StuperUser
    Commented May 16 at 16:49
  • 7
    @StuperUser [hyperledger-fabric-sdk-js] was likely not taught in a computing based course either, but I don't think that tag should be removed so that's a weird metric to use. Likewise [derivative] isn't a programming concept but people may use programming to express something in another domain, a domain that may have experts on-site that can help with that expression.
    – kmdreko
    Commented May 16 at 17:03
  • 9
    @kmdreko [Derivative] is a mathematic concept that you can as a calculation to solve a problem. You don't solve a programming problem with [tax], you solve a [tax] problem with programming.
    – StuperUser
    Commented May 16 at 20:01
  • 2
    @kmdreko [hyperledger-fabric-sdk-js] is a specific tag about, I presume, a js SDK. js and SDKs are programming specific, and I have been taught js and how to use SDKs. It would be hard to ask a question about the hyperledger fabric SDK that isn't programming specific. It would be very easy to ask a question about tax that isn't programming specific.
    – StuperUser
    Commented May 16 at 20:05
  • 5
    @StuperUser I was simply pointing out the criteria in your comment don't make sense as reasons for burnination. Similarly, must be be able to solve a programming problem with [tag] doesn't seem convincing either since many tags are simply for describing the problem space and not a solution itself.
    – kmdreko
    Commented May 16 at 20:27
  • 3
    I don't necessarily care for the [tax] tag but I don't see a reason for the community to put effort into striking it down: its not blatantly off topic, its not being abused, and I can see it being relevant and on-topic (though admittedly only in a few scenarios).
    – kmdreko
    Commented May 16 at 20:27
  • 1
    Are there alternative tags for percentage calculation or similar? Some others for correctly representing and rounding currencies.
    – Sebastian
    Commented May 17 at 20:36
  • 7
    The [price] tag is being burninated is featured in the side bar and almost all the arguments there apply directly to [tax]
    – pilchard
    Commented May 18 at 11:29
  • 2
    It looks like a user is not following the burnination process and is unilaterally removing the tag from questions already. See revisions for this post, in this case, the subtotal tag was added which seems just as bad as tax and price?
    – Hoppeduppeanut
    Commented Jun 4 at 3:14
  • 3
    I don't know, to me [subtotal] reads like a bad tag for the same reasons [price] (now burninated) is a bad tag.
    – Hoppeduppeanut
    Commented Jun 4 at 3:36
  • 1
    It does, but it's an existing tag and needs its own burnination request. If someone makes a request, I'll add it to the queue
    – Zoe - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented Jun 4 at 13:29
  • 2
    Save the discussion for [subtotal] for its own dedicated burn request that no one has posted yet :)
    – Zoe - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented Jun 5 at 12:45

2 Answers 2

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I spent years on a project writing software on a product for completing, calculating and submitting UK tax returns. I never used the tag, nor wanted to.

From the Tour page "we're working together to build a library of detailed, high-quality answers to every question about programming."

If a question is primarily about what tax should be calculated - the specific, geographical legislative details - it is a domain question, not a programming question, so shouldn't be on here and the tag won't add value.

If a question is primarily about how to implement a specific calculation or a data-structure/algorithm, it is on-topic, but no longer about tax, it's about math(s) or programming and the tag won't add value.

As per rene's answer if it is about how to use specific products/tools' tax modules, it only adds value for context as a secondary meta tag.

If we're happy that tags can only add value as context but aren't appropriate as solo tags, then keep it. Else burn it.

As per Shog9's criteria on When to Burniate:

  1. Does it describe the contents of the questions to which it is applied? and is it unambiguous?

It cannot describe the programming content of a question, because tax is an economic concept, not a programming concept. It is not unambiguous because it could not discern between e.g. UK VAT at point of sale or a calculation for completing a W2.

  1. Is the concept described even on-topic for the site?

No.

  1. Does the tag add any meaningful information to the post?

It adds information, but not meaningful information. If someone had an issue calculating e.g. the UK Foreign Tax Credit Relief, the answer would be the same if the programming problem was for an identical calculation that was unrelated to tax.

  1. Does it mean the same thing in all common contexts?

No. Even in the same country, tax concepts are different when applied at point of sale, or for an individual's or organisation's annual return.

It is also, a meta tag.

The reason meta-tags are a problem is that they do not describe the content of the question. They describe some other aspect of the question

  1. If the tag can't work as the only tag on a question, it's probably a meta-tag
  1. If the tag commonly means different things to different people, it's probably a meta-tag.

As a tag, it only provides context, if you are having a programming-based question, it will have a programming-based answer, not a tax-based answer. If you don't have a programming question, it is off-topic.

It fails all 4 of the community accepted criteria, is a meta tag and should be burnt.

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  • 5
    "because tax is an economic concept" let me nerd a bit here. A tax is not a economic concept, it's a legal one along with levy, excise, etc. that has economic and behavioral consequences. Taxes in economics are studied by its effects, but in general are treated as a cost. (Accounting majors would love to disagree with that)
    – Braiam
    Commented May 20 at 17:06
  • This feels like one of those examples where the person decides the answer is "burninate" and answers every one of the 4 questions "no", even when that isn't accurate. "tax" is not ambiguous in the way that say "POST" is ambiguous. And "tax" means the same thing in every context, even if the specific values and algorithms are different, in the same way that "sort" means the same thing in every context, even though there are different sorting algorithms.
    – Steve Bennett
    Commented Jun 11 at 9:03
  • @SteveBennett tax isn't a concept in programming, which is the only context that matters. If it's a common concept, outside of programming, it has no place on a site about programming.
    – Braiam
    Commented Jun 11 at 13:24
  • I don't think that argument holds up. Try applying it to [physics] or [traffic]. Programming often has to relate to concepts that exist "outside of programming". The real question is just about whether there is something specific enough about that concept in the world of programming that justifies a tag.
    – Steve Bennett
    Commented Jun 12 at 1:48
  • @SteveBennett either you are making something from whole cloth and any questions relating specifically to tax and not the calculation are legislative and off-topic. Or you are configuring some tool/platform, Magneto, WooCommerce and the question is then about how that tool/platform implements it, in which case it is meta tag.
    – StuperUser
    Commented Jun 12 at 9:54
  • @SteveBennett You say "tax" is not ambiguous, in the way "POST" is ambiguous. I understand that tax is a thing you pay. But if a question was solely tagged [tax] could you tell whether that was at point of sale, for an annual return? Or road tax? Or vehicle tax? Or Council tax? Could you tell what country the question was about?
    – StuperUser
    Commented Jun 12 at 9:58
  • That just means it is a broad term. Just like [functional programming] is a broad term, or [web] or lots of other things. That's not the same as ambiguity, which is when something has two or more unrelated meanings, like "power on self test" vs an HTTP verb.
    – Steve Bennett
    Commented Jun 15 at 9:29
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has been burninated.

trogdor

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Observations/Retag Guidance:

Note: This is the first burnination following the release of the staging ground, which has previously been observed to cause problems with tag removal. Please keep an eye out for SG-related bugs - though this is mainly relevant towards the end of the burnination, when the tag is supposed to be deleted, where it may be prevented by the SG. It's unclear how high the risk is at the time of writing, again, because this is the first burnination since the release of the SG, and because it's a tiny tag unlikely to get much attention.

  • Most of the questions are centered around various e-commerce platforms; note that only programming-related problems for those platforms are on-topic.
  • There are at least a few policy/legal questions; these are off-topic and should be closed
  • Questions purely about math can be tagged instead.
    • DO NOT add to these questions; leave it if it's already there (or remove it if you need to fit another more relevant tag), but don't add it to any more questions. See this separate burn request that we won't be able to do in the foreseeable future anyway

Progress:

The tag is in the process of being burninated. You can help out by reviewing the questions with this tag, and...

  • editing questions to improve the question and remove the tag (retag-only edits are best left to users with full edit privileges; i.e. > 2k reputation),
  • flagging/voting to close questions that are duplicates/off-topic/unclear/too broad/opinion-based (users with < 3k reputation can help quite a bit by flagging questions for closure, which helps keep the Close Vote Review Queue full),
  • filtering for questions with this tag in the Close Vote Queue,
  • voting on questions with this tag,
  • voting to delete the questions with this tag (after they have been closed, and only if the entire Q&A contains nothing of value). However, keep in mind that at the end of the burnination process all closed questions containing this tag will be deleted semi-automatically. Thus, there's rarely a need to vote to delete these questions.

Here are some quick links to get you started:

Track the progress of burnination

Remember that burnination is a clean-up effort!

Salvage whatever possible by editing and re-tagging.

We don't want to destroy value, so salvaging a post should be your first priority. If a question can be saved, please edit it. Your edit should improve all problems with the question and remove the tag, possibly replacing it with another tag, as described above in "Observations/Retag Guidance". (Edits, specially re-tags, are best left to users with full edit privileges)

Unsalvageable questions should just be flagged/voted for closure. They don't need to be retagged.

If the question is not appropriate for this site, then don't worry about removing the tag—just flag/vote to close the question.

At the end of the burnination process, all questions which still have the tag should have been closed. These will be mass-deleted, which will remove the tag from the system automatically, with minimal disruption.

Ask for help if you need it.

If you have any questions about specific questions you come across, or the process in general, please feel free to leave a comment on this post. You can also drop into the SOCVR chat room for real-time advice and discussion.

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