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# Anticipation of Taxes

## Definition

The practice of borrowing against future tax revenues before those revenues
are actually collected, typically through arrangements with banks or financial
institutions that advance money against expected tax receipts.

## Source Chapter

Book V, Chapter 3

## Context

Smith describes how governments regularly anticipate their annual land and
malt taxes through borrowing clauses in the acts that impose them, creating a
cycle where current revenue is spent before it is received.

## Economic Domain

Regulation

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