[personal profile] lannamichaels made the point that she conceptually thinks of 'tithes' different from 'taxes'. In at least one sense, this is right. Maaser is hekdesh, there are special rules about how you can handle it and what you can do with it. Taxes are just money, they're treated like money.

An interesting situation where the half shekel isn't holy, until the moment where it becomes holy, but it's the value, pretty much. So they can transfer value and use different coins. But redeeming stuff onto coins can also be done and at some point I feel like Allen Ginsberg in Howl, going "holy holy holy"

But just generally when it comes to English words, I am more willing to call half shekel a tithe than I am to call maaser a tax.