Income tax is a tax levied on a person’s income from various sources. It is a direct tax in that it is demanded from the very persons who, intended or desired, should pay it. Hence, every person, either a natural person or a corporate entity, should have to pay income tax on the respective income they derived.  Nevertheless, income driven by a taxpayer may not always be holy. Some incomes earned illegally can be mixed with the lawfully acquired income of the taxpayer. For instance, a shop selling contraband products with lawful once, a hotel collecting payment from prostitutes… etc. At the end of the day, if not understated, such incomes will be reported to tax authorities.

Income taxation is fundamentally territorial. Due to the existence of multiple sovereign states' interests in the tax collected over economic activities, the legal framework for taxation is also complex. The doctrine of state sovereignty provides the conceptual foundations for the legal framework within which States can exercise their taxing power over economic activity. In the terms of public international law, sovereignty demarcates the State’s tax jurisdiction.

As the saying goes “Nothing is certain in life except death and tax.” It’s hardly possible to skip the verges of taxation in life. From the giants in Wall Street to anyone who has the purchasing ability from shop feels the hard pinch of tax either directly or indirectly.  Different forms of tax make through to the pockets of every member of the society. For instance, whenever you drink tea or coffee in a café you pay Value Added Tax (VAT).