What is the difference between taxes and robbery?

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Taxes have many definitions and an interesting history. For starters I went to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for a couple basic definitions. Check these out:

Main Entry: ¹tax
Pronunciation: 'taks
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English, to estimate, assess, tax, from Old French taxer, from Medieval Latin taxare, from Latin, to feel, estimate, censure, frequentative of tangere to touch -- more at TANGENT
Date: 14th century
1 : to assess or determine judicially the amount of (costs in a court action)
2 : to levy a tax on
3 obsolete : to enter (a name) in a list <there went out a decree... that all the world should be taxed -- Luke 2:1 (Authorized Version)>
4 : CHARGE, ACCUSE <taxed him with neglect of duty>; also : CENSURE
5 : to make onerous and rigorous demands on <the job taxed her strength>
- tax·able /'tak-s&-b&l/ adjective
- tax·er noun

Main Entry: rob
Pronunciation: 'räb
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): robbed; rob·bing
Etymology: Middle English robben, from Old French rober, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German roubOn to rob -- more at REAVE
Date: 13th century
transitive senses
1 a (1) : to take something away from by force : steal from (2) : to take personal property from by violence or threat b (1) : to remove valuables without right from (a place) (2) : to take the contents of (a receptacle) c : to take away as loot : STEAL <rob jewelry>
2 a : to deprive of something due, expected, or desired b : to withhold unjustly or injuriously
intransitive senses : to commit robbery
- rob·ber noun
usage Sense transitive sense 1c, in which the direct object is the thing stolen, is sometimes considered to be wrong, or perhaps archaic. The sense has been in use since the 13th century and is found in earlier literature <contrive to rob the honey and subvert the hive -- John Dryden>. It is still in use though not as common as other senses <then robbed $100 after the clerk fled -- Springfield (Mass.) Morning Union>.

Main Entry: ¹tar·iff
Pronunciation: 'tar-&f
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian tariffa, from Arabic ta`rIf notification
Date: 1592
1 a : a schedule of duties imposed by a government on imported or in some countries exported goods b : a duty or rate of duty imposed in such a schedule
2 : a schedule of rates or charges of a business or a public utility
3 : PRICE, CHARGE

Jesus and other prophets have condemned them. Rome's economy collapsed when the tax assessments became so great that the economy disintegrated. And in the economy of the United States there were absolutely NO TAXES to be found in the Constitution of the United States.