Income tax, the return and what can be deducted

Two verbs on this list look like spelling variants and name the same tax from opposite ends. Besteuern is what the state does: der Staat besteuert Zinsen, it lays a tax on them. Versteuern is what the taxpayer does: ich muss die Zinsen versteuern, I have to pay tax on them. The prefixes are doing ordinary work. Be- in front of a noun means to supply something with it, as in bewaffnen or beschriften, so besteuern puts a tax on its object. Ver- in front of a charge means paying that charge on something, and it runs through the whole family: at customs the question is Haben Sie etwas zu verzollen?, and a bank that verzinst a deposit pays interest on it. So the subject of the sentence tells you which verb you need: the authority besteuert, whoever pays versteuert. Swap them and the taxpayer starts to sound like the tax office.