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Odd Taxation: The Statesman
New Delhi, Nov 30: Wherever you live in this world, you`ll be taxed. Why? Well,, government has to be paid for, even anarchists and nihilists need salaries, and so, rich or poor, we pay our taxes.
New Delhi, Nov 30: Wherever you live in this world, you'll be taxed. Why? Well,, government has to be paid for, even anarchists and nihilists need salaries, and so, rich or poor, we pay our taxes. Nowadays what are called direct taxes produce the greatest return perhaps, income tax and similar demands upon the individual are made, and he pays, according to his wealth — well that's the theory anyway. Indirect taxes, sales tax and the like are claimed to be more fair, because if you don't choose to buy a particular thing you can avoid the tax altogether. The trouble of course is that so much today is regarded as essential, 'must have' stuff, not a luxury, so few of us escape paying.
But the history of taxation bears examination. In the past, especially the distant past, rulers came up with remarkably imaginative means of 'raising the wind'. Often it wasn't even money they demanded. Julius Caesar started it perhaps; when Britain was subdued by the Romans he ordered the clan chiefs to send annually to Rome a given number of men and wild animals: initially the idea was that the men would be held as hostages for the good behaviour of the chiefs and the wild animals would be put into the 'circuses' in Rome and would be used in staged fights in the Coliseum and elsewhere. But often the men and the animals shared the same fate, and were even forced to fight each other in the sight of bloodthirsty Roman crowds.
One strong regime gave way to another and when the power of the Pope in Rome became dominant throughout Europe he taxed all men to maintain this power: it came to be called "Peter's Pence" and lasted as a tax for centuries, until the Reformation shattered the Pope's dominance. But in the story of taxation I like the tale of Edgar the Peaceable best. He was an English king who, despite his nickname, conquered Wales. It was expected that he would tax them thereafter. He did, or at least he demanded tribute, and this took an extraordinary form: no money was demanded, instead the Welsh were obliged to hand over annually to the king three hundred wolves' heads. This was a plan that in four years cleared their forests of these wild animals, and gave safety thereafter for both men and domestic animals. Am not quite sure that it would be politically correct to do something like this nowadays, but at the time it was seen as a splendid wheeze.
When the English were themselves attacked from the other side, by Danes and Vikings they sought a tax that would pay for defence. At first it was just a demand from each coastal province to pay for ships and men to fight the invaders; then the tax came to be used for the more shameful purpose of buying off the invaders, bribing them not to land and pillage: shameful and useless for it merely doubled the number of pirates anxious for their share of this easy loot. When invaders were long in the past the English kings still needed money, for instead of repelling an enemy they were anxious to take the fighting to him: the ambition to conquer the lands of France lasted for many years.
Wars were expensive. In the fourteenth century they tried what was called the "poll tax": this consisted of the payment annually of one shilling by everyone above the age of fifteen. No distinction was made: rich or poor you had to pay. The discontent that followed led in fact to open rebellion and the idea was dropped.
Nothing in the Middle Ages escaped taxation: wool, the source of England's wealth, was heavily taxed for example. Taxation in kind was also common: the king's army, marching through his own land, would demand provision from all on the way: no payment was ever made or even contemplated. Labourers and tradesmen had to give their services free to the king: it is said that Windsor Castle was built in this way, with what amounted to slave labour. There were some pretty odd taxes tried out. Among the most odious was the "birth tax": it lasted fortunately only thirteen years from 1695; every person was required to pay two shillings for every little stranger that came into existence. The gentry paid even more heavily, a Duke had to fork out thirty pounds for each of his children — a prodigious sum in those days. At the same time there was a "bachelor's tax": any man over twenty five who remained unmarried had to pay one shilling annually until he found himself a spouse. Even widowers had to pay. If you were a noble you paid two pounds ten shillings, if a gentleman five shillings.
Such was the snobbery prevalent in those days that many a bachelor was content to pay five rather than one shilling, since it conveyed the impression that he was a gentleman! I could go on, the list is endless. Does anyone know of quirky taxes in India? Do let us know. To date Edgar the Peaceable has my vote for the most enlightened tax.
When the English were themselves attacked from the other side, by Danes and Vikings they sought a tax that would pay for defence. At first it was just a demand from each coastal province to pay for ships and men to fight the invaders; then the tax came to be used for the more shameful purpose of buying off the invaders, bribing them not to land and pillage: shameful and useless for it merely doubled the number of pirates anxious for their share of this easy loot. When invaders were long in the past the English kings still needed money, for instead of repelling an enemy they were anxious to take the fighting to him: the ambition to conquer the lands of France lasted for many years.
Wars were expensive. In the fourteenth century they tried what was called the "poll tax": this consisted of the payment annually of one shilling by everyone above the age of fifteen. No distinction was made: rich or poor you had to pay. The discontent that followed led in fact to open rebellion and the idea was dropped.
Nothing in the Middle Ages escaped taxation: wool, the source of England's wealth, was heavily taxed for example. Taxation in kind was also common: the king's army, marching through his own land, would demand provision from all on the way: no payment was ever made or even contemplated. Labourers and tradesmen had to give their services free to the king: it is said that Windsor Castle was built in this way, with what amounted to slave labour. There were some pretty odd taxes tried out. Among the most odious was the "birth tax": it lasted fortunately only thirteen years from 1695; every person was required to pay two shillings for every little stranger that came into existence. The gentry paid even more heavily, a Duke had to fork out thirty pounds for each of his children — a prodigious sum in those days. At the same time there was a "bachelor's tax": any man over twenty five who remained unmarried had to pay one shilling annually until he found himself a spouse. Even widowers had to pay. If you were a noble you paid two pounds ten shillings, if a gentleman five shillings.
Such was the snobbery prevalent in those days that many a bachelor was content to pay five rather than one shilling, since it conveyed the impression that he was a gentleman! I could go on, the list is endless. Does anyone know of quirky taxes in India? Do let us know. To date Edgar the Peaceable has my vote for the most enlightened tax.