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In economics, An Aliquot is defined as that contained in another an exact number of times and is calculated as a percentage or proportion of a total.
Therefore, we can say that it has a meaning equivalent to proportional. In addition, its applications are several, including law, taxation or statistics. For example, there are various taxes that are taxed with a percentage of a total. This would be An Aliquot (the fee to be paid) of the whole or tax base.
Origin of the word Aliquot
This word comes from Latin, specifically “aliquot” which means “a number of times.” It is also composed of “alitus” which would be the equivalent of “others” and “quot” which means “how much”. Therefore, its meaning would be related to the division into equal parts of a whole or the proportion over a total.
A historical curiosity was related to the Value Added Tax or VAT. In several countries it was decided to establish a quota for this product of first necessity of 0%. In this way, there was no Aliquot of this tax to be paid by the final consumer. The goal was to help the less well off
However, the producers did pay for it. Thus, what the retail establishment did was to include this tax in its cost price. In the end they ended up giving a series of frauds. To solve it, we opted for reduced VAT rates for the consumer. That is, by minor proportional parts of the tax.
Applications in various disciplines
This concept is used in various disciplines such as tax law, inheritance or statistics, among others.
- One of the most common uses is, as we have already seen, in the tributes. A percentage is used as a proportion for the calculation of the fee to be paid.
- Also in law, especially in relation to inheritance. In this case it serves to distribute equally an inheritance among its beneficiaries.
- In statistics it is used to choose a shows proportional of a population. This will be representative and smaller.
Aliquot Examples
Finally, we propose some numerical examples that will clarify possible doubts about this concept.
- In taxes it is, as we know, the proportional part of something. Imagine that in Spain, Chile or any other country a product is taxed with a VAT of 21% and this is worth 100 monetary units (CU). This tax will be (proportionality) of CU21, which is calculated as 21% of the tax base, which is the price.
- In the case of an inheritance. If there are five heirs, each of them will have a share equal to the others of 20%. The total is calculated by multiplying this percentage by the number of parts. 5 * 20% = 100%. The inheritance is divided by multiplying the total by this percentage of each heir.
- In statistics, when we take a proportional part of a whole, we are using an aliquot. For example, a sample which represents 20% of a total population. The objective is that it is representative and that its study has a lower cost because it is smaller than the original population.