Taxation Throughout The Centuries

Taxation has existed since the very beginning of time

, or at least since history has been recorded. Egypt, Greece, the Romans, Great Britain and eventually America all adapted the practice of taxing their goods and their people.

In Egypt, during the many reigns of the Pharaohs, there were tax collectors. They were monitored by people called scribes. The tax collectors had to report to the scribes everyday how much in taxes they had collected.

Scribes were considered very well educated and of a higher class than others in the kingdom because they had taken the necessary steps to educate themselves and therefore were considered a good choice to look over the tax collectors.

Egypt was divided much the same way that the United States is today. Egypt was divided into Nomes, and each Nome was ruled by a governor.

Taxes however were paid a little differently. In the days of the Pharaohs taxes were paid in goods and labor. Because of this system, each person paid a little bit different tax.

If you, for instance were a craftsman you would pay in goods and if you were a hunter or fisherman you would pay in food. Every family was required to pay a labor tax each year as well by working in the country's mines, canals or other projects that benefited the whole country.

Greece was another ancient civilization to adopt a tax system. They did it mostly during war times, and it was considered to be one of the less civilized taxation systems. Tax collectors in Greece were known as Publicans.

Eisphora was the name for a tax levied on only the rich, and usually only in times of wartime expenditures. The Greeks were one of the very few civilizations who were able to rescind the tax once the emergency was over with and when funds were recollected then returned them to the people.

Foreigners were also taxed in Athens. People who did not have both an Athenian mother and father were taxed a small tax each month.

Some cities imposed very heavy taxes on their citizens. They also had many indirect taxes including taxes on houses, slaves, herds, and flocks among other things.

Not all city-states were taxed by the government, some ran the taxation through their specific city-state and some had no taxes at all.

The Roman Empire is a third ancient civilization to participate in the taxation system. The earliest taxes in Rome were from duties on imports and exports. These taxes were called portoria.

Caesar Augustus could be considered the father of the Roman tax system though. During his first reign, the publicans were eliminated as tax collectors for the government. Cities were given the responsibilities for collecting the taxes themselves.

He also instituted an inheritance tax to provide retirement funds for the military. The tax was 5% on all inheritances except gifts to children and spouses. The English and Dutch later modeled their inheritance tax system after Augustus.

Julius Caesar a former ruler of the Roman Empire imposed a 1% sales tax, but during the time of Caesar Augustus the sales tax rose to 4% for slaves and 1% for everything else. Matthew, later a disciple of Jesus Christ, was a tax collector for the Roman Empire.

The first imposed tax in England was during the Roman occupation. When Rome fell however, the Saxon kings took over the taxation of England. They taxed land, property and port goods.

Taxes during this time in England were much higher for the wealthy than the common peasant. Last, but certainly not least, America took up the practice of taxation when European colonization began to take place. One of the first major tax acts was known as the Sugar Act, and was a tax on foreign imports.

The Stamp Act was later added as well. It imposed taxes on all newspapers, and most commercial and legal documents printed in the colonies.

Taxation as we know continued to increase as the government grew and our country became more developed. We are now taxed for just about everything from food to health care.

In order to keep yourself out of a tax crisis and avoid problems with the IRS always remember to pay your taxes by April 15th and that people have been paying them for centuries. Even though our taxes have increased, no one can escape the responsibilities of paying them.

by: Jack Landry

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