Cite as: 527 U. S. 423 (1999)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
only in a later year or never receives any income at all, see § 1(F). And, of course, as I mentioned earlier, the event that triggers liability is not the receipt of income but the person's "engag[ing]" in certain work. § 2.
Third, Jefferson County's tax is riddled with exceptions, which make sense only if one sees the tax as part of a statewide occupational licensing scheme, not as an income tax. See 1967 Ala. Acts 406, § 4 (authorizing counties to impose a license tax only in respect to occupations not subject to state, or other county, licensing taxes). The ordinance excludes from its definition of "vocation, occupation, calling and profession" domestic servants, those engaged in occupations licensed elsewhere by the county, and those engaged in the more than 150 occupations licensed by the State. Ordinance No. 1120, § 1(B). This last-mentioned category is large. Its members range from architects to amusement park operators, from detectives to dentists, from laundry owners to lawyers, from sewing machine operators to scientists. See generally Ala. Code § 40-12-41 et seq. (1993); Appendix, infra, at 458-464. And the licensing fees that the State exacts from this range of individuals are, with only a few exceptions, all unrelated to income. Each attorney, for example, pays "an annual license tax to the state" in the amount of $250, § 40-12-49; each civil, electrical, or mechanical engineer pays $20, § 40-12-99; and each ticket scalper pays $100, § 40-12-167. Some fees vary depending upon special industry-related features, such as population (e. g., advertising, § 40-12-45; amusement park operators, § 40-12- 47), number of employees (e. g., automobile garages or shops, § 40-12-54), or business size (e. g., soft-drink bottlers, number of bottles per minute, § 40-12-65; construction companies, value of orders accepted, § 40-12-84; vending machine operators, total sales, § 40-12-176). License fees for a handful of businesses are measured by the income or gross receipts of the company (not of a private person). See § 40- 16-4 (certain financial institutions); §§ 40-21-50, 40-21-53
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