Neither. Distribution of wealth in Germanic society depended on social relations. Theoretically, people would give due tributes to their socially superiors (similar to Roman patrons), who might reciprocate by giving their followers (sometimes 'friends' though the relation is not voluntary or equal) 'gifts' in the form of food or money. This is in the case of relatively well-off men. The poor, or women and children, would be literally dependent on their patrons, which means that everything they own (and the products of their labour) are already owned by their superiors (the holders of estates). In practice, of course, there is a might-makes-right system going on here (also called a kleptocracy) where those with weapons are free to take from the weak, who are dependent on the protection of others with weapons. What these militarily weaker people give in return for protection could in modern terms be called 'tax' in the loosest sense, but is more commonly regarded as 'tribute'. Neither of those really capture the reality of the situation, which is that dependents literally owe everything to their protectors.

So if we leave the bleak world of the 99% behind and look at the wealth redistribution amongst the 1%, we might see cases were a conqueror imposes a percentage of wealth as tribute, which is also simply protection money. This tribute is distinguished from 'tax' in that it is irregular and incidental. A slightly more stable source of wealth for Germanic kings might be the levying of tolls, of which we do not really know enough. It is quite possible that the only form of tolls was again protection money, a certain fraction of your goods in exchange for safe passage (and protection from harassment by the locals) through an aristocrat's zone of influence. More probable is again an informal 'guest' situation, where a foreign trader is (when he is welcome) invited to the local aristocrat's court, and if you are invited to someone's house you are supposed to give gifts. If the gifts are sufficient and proportional to the hospitality the merchant receives, trade may be conducted. In essence, this is the early medieval form of tariffs and tolls.

Good insights into the mentality of early medieval wealth distribution can be found in some of the Icelandic sagas (particularly Gunnar), as well as Ottar's reception at the Mercian court or Beowulf at Hrotgars court. The early medieval law codes of Scandinavia also illustrate these concepts.