Nobody woke
up one day and said, let’s tax the heck out of people for their bad behavior,
for existing, for traveling on roads, for smoking, for drinking, for trash
disposal, for luxury goods, for pollution, for phone use, radio, TV, Internet, for
buying goods and services, property, hunting, fishing, building, learning,
farming, and other purposes.
Taxes were
added slowly over centuries for the “common good,” to redistribute wealth, to
subsidize politicians and their parties, for “climate change” and for not
buying health insurance. It was a slow, one paper cut at a time until the
tax-paying and hard-working citizens bled to death from the burden of taxation.
Taxation has
become a very lucrative bottomless funding industry, easy revenue for the
ever-spending politicians who keep squandering or giving away taxpayer dollars
often to the enemy.
Taxes are so
ancient, they are even mentioned in the Bible. Tax collectors during the time
of Jesus could stop a person and tax them for what they were carrying.
Matthew 22: 15-22
talks about Caesar’s imperial tax levied on non-Roman citizens:
15 Then the
Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the
Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and
that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed
by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right
to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus,
knowing their evil intent, said, “You
hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and
he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose
inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,”
they replied.
Then he said to them, “So
give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they
heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Ancient
Egypt used scribes to tax cooking oil. The annual flooding cycle of the river
Nile prompted the taxation of people based on the flood level; those whose land
was never flooded paid lower taxes. Egyptians whose land was flooded annually
paid the highest taxes.
Ancient
Greece taxed its citizens during times of war and rescinded the tax once the
war was over. How unheard of to rescind taxes, they certainly would not do it
today! Foreigners had to pay a poll tax called metoikion for not having an Athenian Mother and Father.
The Romans
were tax happy. They paid customs duties called portoria. An inheritance tax paid for the military retirement. The
corrupt Roman tax collectors in the British Isles led to Queen Boadicea’s
revolt in 60 A.D. with her army of 230,000 which killed 80,000 people before
Emperor Nero crushed it.
Cato
convinced the Senate in 181 B.C. to pass laws imposing high taxes on foreign
goods such as carriages, perfume, silk clothing, and highly educated slaves.
Cemeteries
were exempt from property taxes in Roman times, so the poet Virgil came up with
an ingenious idea to avoid paying taxes on his home. He buried a fly in his
yard with pomp and circumstance, speeches and food, in order to exempt his villa
as a cemetery. We are not sure if his loophole worked.
Emperor Vespasian
placed a tax on urine collected from public toilets. Those needing urine to
launder (whiten) wool paid a tax when they bought it.
When Judea
became a Roman protectorate following its conquest by Pompey in 63 B.C., the
Jews had complete religious freedom as long as they made a daily contribution
to the Roman emperor’s coffers. They were exempted from military service and
were allowed to run their own businesses.
Assyria (mât Aššur) was the ancient empire located in the northeastern part
of modern Iraq, on the east bank of the Tigris River. The Assyrians treated their neighbors
so badly during their pillaging raids that the chieftains decided to pay
tribute and swear allegiance to the Assyrian king in order to avoid the hordes
descending on them from the desert. The system of taxation in the name of their
god Ashur was so efficient that it supplied the empire with money and men.
The Chimu Empire
which existed in northern Peru between the 13th and 15th
centuries did not have a system of coinage. As master weavers, they used
textile as payment for taxes and tribute.
The Incas
used an elaborate system of one foot cords with other colored strings attached
called quipu, “knot,” with which they
were able to record “the tributes received from conquered tribes and taxes owed
to the king by his subjects.” Those who kept up with the quipu were called quipucamayocs
and were exempt from taxation and other duties.
The
Anglo-Saxon Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of town to persuade her
husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, to reduce taxes on the residents of Coventry
in the 11th century England.
Poll taxes
were levied in 1377-1380 by the Regency of Richard II in order to pay for the
French war. The taxes were extremely painful to the poor since both rich and
poor had to pay the same rate. In late spring 1381 a crowd of 20,000 peasants
and laborers rebelled outside London against the aristocrats whom they blamed
for the high taxes they had to pay in order to support the failed war with
France.
Armed with
axes, bows and arrows, the rebels refused to pay taxes and marched through town
and burned buildings owned by aristocrats, destroying legal documents that implicated
those who did not pay their taxes.
Excise taxes
on goods such as meat, grain, tobacco, wine, lamp oil, silks, spices, and even
luxuries were quite burdensome across the centuries.
In Cordoba,
the capital of the Muslim Andalucía, the non-Muslim citizens had to pay a poll
tax based on income and could be paid in installments. The source of revenue to
Andalucía was so large, the Moors discouraged conversion to Islam.
The
colonists paid import duties on sugar, wine, and molasses under the Molasses
Act. The Stamp Act collected taxes from colonists on newspapers and commercial
and legal documents.
There were English
taxes on soap, a property tax based on the number of windows, on the number of
bricks, scutage (opt out of war duties), candles, wig powder, salt, perfumes, printed
wallpaper, TV (black v. color, even blind people must pay), a property tax
based on exterior appearance (Italy), a tax on freedom (Rome), beards (Russia),
furs, cooked v. raw food, stolen property, and many other strange taxes in
various American states. http://www.efile.com/unusual-strange-funny-taxes-throughout-the-world-and-history/
Some taxes
are necessary for the running of a large empire but others are burdensome and
unnecessary, often necessitating a licensed accountant to understand the ever-intricate
code. The IRS code, famous for its complexity, comes to mind.
It will be
interesting to see how much revenue will be generated from the Obamacare insurance
non-compliance tax/penalty. A lot of health exchange beneficiaries who receive
subsidies will be apoplectically surprised when the subsidy or part of it will
be taxed.
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