I'm aware of what excise taxes are, but I see why it might seem like that's what I meant, because I wasn't really explaining what I meant by that phrase. By "ex

I'm aware of what excise taxes are, but I see why it might seem like that's what I meant, because I wasn't really explaining what I meant by that phrase. By "excess tax", I mean taxes in excess of the cost of the behavior they're trying to regulate. Both of these examples are both excise taxes, the rates of which are in excess of the costs borne to society of those activities.