Payment by the Editor, of fiscal concern (5)
I believe the answer is:
taxed
'payment by the editor of fiscal concern' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'by the editor of fiscal concern' is the wordplay.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'editor of fiscal concern' becomes 'axed' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
't' put next to 'axed' is 'TAXED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for taxed that I've seen before include "Imposed duty on" , "Heavily burdened" , "Was demanding" , "Stretched" , "Made heavy demands on" .)