Direct taxes are government charges borne by the persons or organisations on whom they are imposed, rather than being passed on through the price of goods or services. They mainly concern earnings, assets, or similar bases and may also include certain regularly recurring charges assessed on other grounds. In public-sector accounting, transactions between government entities are normally recorded separately, so a tax transfer within government can be shown both as income for the receiving unit and as an expense for the paying unit.
Source: European Central Bank (ECB) (source). This glossary entry is an independently worded adaptation of the cited information.