Taxes are a strange thing. They are hated by the masses but loved by Governments. The earliest records of taxes can be found in the ancient world of the Egyptians. Over 3000 years ago, Egyptians introduced a tax system to fund the building of the Pyramids. This tax however was not in the form of money. It came in two main forms. The first was when the Pharaoh would take 20% of all agriculture produce. The second was through public service. Many citizens were forced into slavery as service to the country.

The introduction of money brought with it a new form of tax. Instead of taking a percentage of produce, a sum of money was taken from people’s income. Alexander the Great, emperor of Rome, demanded regular tributes from defeated enemies. This lead to a great improvement in Rome’s wealth. The temples also received taxes from its members. This would continue for centuries and cause troubles in the Catholic Church.

Between the 1400’s and the 1800’s, the Catholic monastery forced its members to pay indulgences. The leaders of the Church stated that these indulgences would shorten the time a person spent in Purgatory, and the more they paid the higher their chance would be of being accepted into heaven. This corruption continued until a monk named Martin Luther nailed a list of the churches problems on the door of his local church. The pope exiled Luther from the church, and more people began to follow the trend set by the monk. The massive loss in followers resulted in the church abandoning its ways.

Mercantilism paved the way to a new way of taxing people. International trade allowed nations to tariff goods coming into their country, resulting in tariffs becoming over popular and trading goods became highly rewarding to some, and caused worry for others. If a country was to tax coffee that was being imported it meant that the cost of coffee could decrease for the public. The rapid enlargement in tax rates lead to the breakout of many international disputes, and in some case, civil unrest.

The first tax in Britain was in 1799. It was issued to raise the funds for the war against Napoleon. With every victory for Napoleon, the tax in Britain increased, to the disgust of the civilians. After the defeat of Napoleon other European states began taxing. They saw the potential of tax plans and could not resist the promising result that Britain had achieved.

The British tax trends spread throughout their empire and it wasn’t long before the original 13 colonies of America were affected. The British could not tax the income but they could tax importing goods. Tax was put on coffee and food and paint, lead, and oils were heavily taxed. This did not please the citizens of the colonies. A strong hatred of the British was developing rapidly through the 13 states. The breakout of war was fast to follow.

Taxes have been around for over 3000 years and they are still not liked by most people. They have not evolved much over the years but they can be rewarding if used well. The history of taxes shows the good points and the bad points. From helping the British defeat the French, to the Colonies breaking away from the British Empire, even to the building of the marvelous pyramids, taxes have had a great impact on how the modern world has come to be.

Author Bio: Bruno is a web entrepreneur and social media marketing consultant working for the Norwegian dog community website Hundefeber.no. He also owns a lovely Pomeranian and a Mops dog.

Category: Finances
Keywords: Finance,finances,tax,taxes,money