July 11, 2012

Tax Really Can Be Taxing

The drones will love this. The libertarians will scream. The anarchists will be incensed.

I am merely disgusted.

Disgusted and fed up.

Disgusted, fed up, and angry.

Disgusted, fed up, angry, and rebellious.

From my inbox this week. Here we go:

"Tax his land.
Tax his bed.
Tax the table at which he's fed.

Tax his work.
Tax his pay.
He works for peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow.
Tax his goat.
Tax his pants.
Tax his coat.

Tax his tobacco.
Tax his drink.
Tax him if he tries to think.

Tax his car.
Tax his gas.
Find other ways to tax his ass.

Tax all he has then let him know
That you won't be done till he has no dough. 

When he screams and hollers, then tax him some more.
Tax him till he's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin.
Tax his grave.
Tax the earth in which he's laid.

When he's gone, do not relax.
It's time to apply the inheritance tax.

Here’s (a few) of those damned taxes:

Accounts Receivable Tax
Airline surcharge tax
Airline Fuel Tax
Airport Maintenance Tax
Building Permit Tax
Cigarette Tax
Cooking Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Council Tax
Death Tax
Driving License Tax
Energy Tax
Environmental Tax
Excise Taxes
Income Tax
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Petrol Tax
Gross Receipts Tax
Health Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest Tax
Heating Tax
Lighting Tax
Liquor Tax
Marriage License Tax
Mortgage Tax
National Insurance Tax
Personal Income Tax
Property Tax
Poverty Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Tax (VAT) on Tax
Telephone Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Water Tax

And now they want a blooming carbon tax!!

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago - and our nation was one of the most prosperous in the world.  We had absolutely no national debt, had a large middle class, a huge manufacturing base, and Mum stayed home to raise the kids. 

What happened?

Could it be the lying parasitic politicians wasting our money?  Oh, and don't forget the relatively new bank charges.  And we all know what we think of Bankers!"

For those not too downhearted to continue reading, here is a short history lesson:

"The Romans had taxes, remember the census from which Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt.

Now that we are in Egypt and way before the Lord Christ:  During the various reins of the Egyptian Pharaohs tax collectors were known as scribes.  During one period the scribes imposed a tax on cooking oil.  To insure that citizens were not avoiding the cooking oil tax scribes would audit households to insure that appropriate amounts of cooking oil were consumed and that citizens were not using leavings generated by other cooking processes as a substitute for the taxed oil.

Now lets nip across the Med to Greece where we find that in times of war the Athenians imposed a tax referred to as eisphora. No one was exempt from the tax which was used to pay for special wartime expenditures.  The Greeks are one of the few societies that were able to rescind the tax once the emergency was over.  When additional resources were gained by the war effort the resources were used to refund the tax. Athenians imposed a monthly poll tax on foreigners, people who did not have both an Athenian Mother and Father, of one drachma for men and a half drachma for women.  The tax was referred to as metoikio. 

There are many earlier examples of taxation but I guess the idea became universally acceptable thank to good old Rome, there the earliest taxes were customs duties on imports and exports called portoria. Caesar Augustus was consider by many to be the most brilliant tax strategist of the Roman Empire.  During his reign as "First Citizen" the publicani were virtually eliminated as tax collectors for the central government.  During this period cities were given the responsibility for collecting taxes.  Caesar Augustus instituted an inheritance tax to provide retirement funds for the military.  The tax was 5 percent on all inheritances except gifts to children and spouses.   The English and Dutch referred to the inheritance tax of Augustus in developing their own inheritance taxes. During the time of Julius Caesar a 1 percent sales tax was imposed.  During the time of Caesar Augustus the sales tax was 4 percent for slaves and 1 percent for everything else. Saint Matthew was a publican (tax collector) from Capernaum during Caesar Augustus reign.  He was not of the old publicani but hired by the local government to collect taxes. In 60 A.D. Boadicea, queen of East Anglia led a revolt that can be attributed to corrupt tax collectors in the British Isles.  Her revolt allegedly killed all Roman soldiers within 100 miles; seized London; and it is said that over 80,000 people were killed during the revolt.  The Queen was able to raise an army of 230,000. 

The revolt was crushed by Emperor Nero and resulted in the appointment of new administrators for the British Isles.

Just a bit more for those truly interested in Our glorious Motherland and how things developed here: The first tax assessed in England was, as I just mentioned above, during occupation by the Roman Empire. Lady Godiva was an Anglo-Saxon woman who lived in England during the 11th century. According to legend, Lady Godiva's husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, promised to reduce the high taxes he levied on the residents of Coventry when she agreed to ride naked through the streets of the town. When Rome fell, the old Saxon kings who liked their pound of flesh as well, imposed taxes, referred to as Danegeld, on land and property that the Danes were quietly stealing and accumulating. The kings also imposed substantial customs duties.

The 100 years War (the conflict between England and France) began in 1337 and ended in 1453. One of the key factors that renewed fighting in 1369 was the rebellion of the nobles of Aquitaine over the oppressive tax policies of Edward, The Black Prince.( Good old John, for it is from himself, the very person that I personally have secured a bit of a title, and some land rights in perpetuity, but then  my ancestors had to be pretty good with the longbow and slaughtering a few heavily armoured French knights who expected chivalry and not butchery on the Medieval battlefields.

Taxes during 14th century were very progressive; The 1377 Poll tax noted that the tax on the Duke of Lancaster was 520 times the tax on the common peasant. Under the earliest taxing schemes an income tax was imposed on the wealthy, office holders, and the clergy. A tax on movable property was imposed on merchants. The poor paid little or no taxes. Charles I was ultimately charged with treason and beheaded. However, his problems with Parliament came about because of a disagreement in 1629 about the rights of taxation afforded the King and the rights of taxation afforded the Parliament. The King's Writ stated that individuals should be taxed according to status and means. Hence the idea of a progressive tax on those with the ability to pay was developed very early. Other prominent taxes imposed during this period were taxes on land and various excise taxes. To pay for the army commanded by Oliver Cromwell, Parliament, in 1643, imposed excise taxes on essential commodities (grain, meat, etc.). The taxes imposed by Parliament extracted even more funds than taxes imposed by Charles I, especially from the poor. The excise tax was very regressive, increasing the tax on the poor so much that the Smithfield riots occurred in 1647. The riots occurred because the new taxes lowered rural labourers’ ability to buy wheat to the point where a family of four would starve. In addition to the excise tax, the common lands used for hunting by the peasant class were enclosed and peasant hunting was banned (hooray for Robin Hood).

A precursor to the modern income tax we know today was invented by the British in 1800 to finance their engagement in the war with Napoleon.  The tax was repealed in 1816 and opponents of the tax, who thought it should only be used to finance wars, wanted all records of the tax destroyed along with its repeal.  Records were publicly burned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer but copies were retained in the basement of the tax court."

So now you know.

CR.

12 comments:

Woodsy42 said...

Depressing isn't it. And you have not counted the multiplicity of fees and charges that now exist and have to be paid for a normal existence.
Want to leave the country, buy a passport at a huge admin fee. Want to park in town, pay a fee to the council coffers. Want to have music in the pub, pay a licence fee. Want to sell food, pay an inspection fee. Want to hold a village fete, you need a licence. Want to employ someone who might see a child during their work, get a disclosure certificate. The list is enormous. These are essentially taxes because they are all paid to support government administration before you are allowed to carry out the activity.

Captain Ranty said...

Woodsy,

It wasn't my list. I took out half a dozen that seemed to be US centric.

You are right though: there are dozens more.

What I really want to know is the fine details about where they spend it all.

And, no matter how skint the country is, the pricks in Wastemonster always manage to find the odd £10 billion to give to someone. How is that possible?

CR.

Anonymous said...

"And, no matter how skint the country is, the pricks in Wastemonster always manage to find the odd £10 billion to give to someone. How is that possible?"

That's easy CR, they borrow it and we pay it back.

James Higham said...

Had to smile at Hollande accusing Cameron of socialist taxation.

Anonymous said...

Good article and to add to the part on Charles I and Cromwell, the execution of Charles and the seizing of the throne by Cromwell was a conspiracy of Dutch, Jewish bankers to get back into the UK who were, like all Jews, still banished from setting foot on British soil under Edward I's Edict of Expulsion of 1293

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Expulsion

It was after 1649 that the Jews returned to the UK to continue with their usury, the main reason behind the world's banking crisis today and one of the reasons for their expulsion from the UK in 1290 (and the other 83 lands). It was really after the English civil war that the banks were established to feed off the population and yet when mentioning these facts one is called a Jew hater, regardless if it's the truth.

regards

Harbinger

Anonymous said...

Inheritance tax.

They continue to rob us when were dead.

Dave_G said...

Tax is, I suppose, a necessary evil BUT it needs to be:

1. applied and collected JUSTLY (and maybe a flat rate tax of x% on EVERYTHING would prevent avoidance by ANYONE)
2. be spent WISELY - even if this means a referendum on its use
3. be accountable - in that anyone acting (spending) on behalf of the tax payer is WASTEFUL or NEGLECTFUL of their duties then they would be punished severely for the fact.
4. be repayable to anyone should that tax be proven to be unjust (i.e. preventing Global Warming, illegal warmongering etc)

Tax, per se, doesn't p1ss me off - it's the AMOUNT, METHOD OF COLLECTION and utter WASTE of it that does though.

Anonymous said...

Hi Cpt,what is a cooking tax?..is it on businesses?

Captain Ranty said...

Missed that one. It's probably a US thing.

CR.

William said...

"And, no matter how skint the country is, the pricks in Wastemonster always manage to find the odd £10 billion to give to someone. How is that possible?"

Who prints the money?
Who creates the credit?

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JC said...

I think its worth noting:

--The TSA grabs your business whether you're black or white, whether you voted Republican or Democrat.
--When the banks come to foreclose on people's homes, they put you out in the street, regardless of whether or not you're black or white, a Republican or a Democrat.
--Studies show blacks, whites, Republicans and Democrats all continue to file for bankruptcy.
--You could be forced to buy health insurance, or pay a penalty, whether or not you're black, white, Republican or Democrat.

Did I miss anybody? Sure, lots of other diverse individuals, but none of them are exempt either.

Sound like freedom to you?

Without freedom, you can't be anything--not even a songwriter, a film maker or a blogger.
Without freedom, you can't do anything--except what you're told.

I Want My Country Back VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le7IV1ltgNE