Many years ago I went on a tour of Plantation houses outside of New Orleans. I loved the large windows that you could raise and walk out onto the spacious porch; it must have been wonderful to have such an open feeling. I was disabused of my ideas however, for the tour guide pointed out that such windows were invented in order to avoid the tax on doors. You see, every permanent door in a house was taxed, so in order to save money the architects simply eliminated doors to the outside by replacing them with huge windows that one could raise and walk through. The same was true in the bedrooms for there were no closets; instead, armoires were used; no permanent door, no tax.
In England on the other hand, in 1697 the British crown decided to tax windows; poor people had few, rich people had many. As a result, even today, you can walk through the city and see buildings with bricked in windows which negated the tax. Better to curse the tax man in darkness than to let in the light and pay the tax. How selfish!
History is filled with instances such as these, for the constant battle for the individual to keep their own money vs. the insatiable demands of government for revenue are as old as can be.
Another example was the tax in 1698 by Peter the Great of Russia on beards; to Peter, beards were a symbol of his countries backwardness as the old ruling class, the Boyars had beards. This was an early attempt at social engineering through taxes. If you wanted to keep your beard, you had to purchase a “beard token”.
Taxes go as far back as recorded history. The ancient Greeks and Romans were taxed if they were not married (the same was true for British bachelors from 1695-1706 and some states in the U.S. into the 20th century). The tax gave rise to a new industry in Argentina around 1900, that of “professional lady rejectors”. They were women who for a fee, would sear to authorities that the specific man had proposed but she had rejected him, thus freeing him from the tax.
If you are interested in more examples, look for “Rebellion, Rascals and Revenue” by Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod. I have not read the book, only the reviews but it sounds like a bit of a good read. Of course, I know that you really want to pay your fair share so don’t get any ideas!
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