Hypothecation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hypothecation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:


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A more recent use of the word is as a contraction of 'hypothetical dedication', as in a 'dedicated tax' to be collected for a specific purpose. (This may be a spurious origin of the word, since the original definition of hypothecation as a pledging of assets could also be applied: the expected revenue from the tax in question being pledged to a particular cause). Dedicated taxes are often subject to unexpected shortfalls and surpluses. This may create political pressure to adjust the tax, to budget non-dedicated revenues for the purpose in question, or to reallocate surplus funds to other purposes.

[edit] Examples

Examples of hypothecation in the latter sense include the gasoline tax in the United States, which is dedicated to the funding of transportation infrastructure. A common example in many European countries is a television licence. Here, all owners of televisions are obliged to pay the government an annual fee to use their televisions. The proceeds of the fee are then used to fund public broadcasting. Another example is a dedicated tax on the private trading of securities (for example, 0.3 cents per dollar traded) used to fund public infrastructure programs directly (such as the building of a water treatment plant) or to pay the finance costs of such programs."