I think there is a difference between fee and tax. The former only applied to those who receive the service, and the other applied to all. Or I understand it wrong?
In California the definition goes something like this:
A tax (new or increased): Something that has to be approved by voters
A fee (new or increased): Any tax you can sneak through the legislature by calling it a “fee.”
I agree there *should* be a difference (as you point out), but the terms are so misused they no longer follow the original intent. JMHO
Only if you consider “income taxes” — they go into a general fund and are then spent for the benefit of all. Although 50% of the population pays nothing in income taxes.
FICA taxes are not called “fees” even though they promise future benefits will be received directly by the person that paid them.
Liquor, fuel and other excise taxes are not called “fees” even though they are only paid by the user that purchased the item. The “service received” presumably being the cost of regulating that industry ?
Fees go into a slush fund with tax revenue and then is doled out to projects without regard to where the money came from. I agree that “fees” should be compartmentalized so that money goes nowhere except to provide the services related to the fee, but it doesn’t work that way at any level of government as far as I know. Governments ignore free market concepts in setting prices for services.