Contributions

Taxes or money contributed to the support of the government. 2. Voluntary gifts of money to charitable and public service organizations, often with tax advantages for the contributor.

Contributions are of three kinds, namely: first, those which arise from persons on account of their property, real or personal, or which are imposed upon their industry - those which are laid on and paid by real estate without regard to its owner; and - those to which personal property is subject, in its transmission from hand to hand, without regard to the owner.

This is a generic term which includes all kinds of impositions for the public benefit.

By contributions is also meant forced levy of money or property by a belligerent in a hostile country which he occupies, by which means the country is made to contribute to the support of the army of occupation. These contributions are usually taken instead of pillage.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.