First published in 1965. This is four volumes in one text on Taxes and Taxation from the earliest times to the present day. The first volume looks at the history of taxation and tax in England, then Volume II the taxation period from the Civil War to the present day, volume II concerns itself with direct taxes and stamp duties; and finally Volume IV concludes with taxes on articles of consumption.
In this comprehensive analysis of social systems of taxation and budgeting, the authors provide detailed examples from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages in Europe, and modern times to show how governments through the ages have raised money and spent it. They examine the two essential activities of government--taxing and spending--against the background of the societies in which they were imbedded and the development of government's administrative capacities. They also argue that government mobilization of resources involves critical human concerns--waging war and providing for the welfare of the people. ISBN 0-671-54617-1: $24.95.
In 1914, taxation was about 10 per cent of GNP; by 1979, taxes had risen to almost half of the total national income, and contributed to the rise of Thatcher. Martin Daunton continues the story begun in Trusting Leviathan, offering an analysis of the politics of acceptance of huge tax rises after the First World War and asks why it did not provoke the same levels of discontent in Britain as it did on the continent. He further questions why acceptance gave way to hostility at the end of this period. Daunton views taxes as the central driving force for equity or efficiency. As such he provides a detailed discussion of their potential in providing revenue for the state, and their use in shaping the social structure and influencing economic growth. Just Taxes places taxation in its proper place, at the centre of modern British history.
An engaging and enlightening account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes ludicrous stories drawn from around the world and across the ages Governments have always struggled to tax in ways that are effective and tolerably fair. Sometimes they fail grotesquely, as when, in 1898, the British ignited a rebellion in Sierra Leone by imposing a tax on huts—and, in repressing it, ended up burning the very huts they intended to tax. Sometimes they succeed astonishingly, as when, in eighteenth-century Britain, a cut in the tax on tea massively increased revenue. In this entertaining book, two leading authorities on taxation, Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, provide a fascinating and informative tour through these and many other episodes in tax history, both preposterous and dramatic—from the plundering described by Herodotus and an Incan tax payable in lice to the (misremembered) Boston Tea Party and the scandals of the Panama Papers. Along the way, readers meet a colorful cast of tax rascals, and even a few tax heroes. While it is hard to fathom the inspiration behind such taxes as one on ships that tended to make them sink, Keen and Slemrod show that yesterday’s tax systems have more in common with ours than we may think. Georgian England’s window tax now seems quaint, but was an ingenious way of judging wealth unobtrusively. And Tsar Peter the Great’s tax on beards aimed to induce the nobility to shave, much like today’s carbon taxes aim to slow global warming. Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue is a surprising and one-of-a-kind account of how history illuminates the perennial challenges and timeless principles of taxation—and how the past holds clues to solving the tax problems of today.
These are the papers from the 2012 Cambridge Tax Law History Conference revised and reviewed for publication. The papers include new studies of: income tax law rewrite projects 1914–1956; law and administration in capital allowances 1878– 1950; the 'full amount' in income tax legislation; Sir Josiah Stamp and double income tax; early German income tax treaties and laws concerned with double tax avoidance (1869–1908); the policy of the medicine stamp duty; 'Danegeld' – from Danish tribute to English land tax; religion and charity, a historical perspective; 'Plaintive Glitterati'; a collision of accounting and law, dividends from pre-1914 profits in Australia; the history and development of the taxation profession in the UK and Australia; an inquiry into Dutch to British Colonial Malacca 1824–1839; the taxation history of China; taxing bachelors in America: 1895–1939; Dutch Tax reform under Napoleon; and the last decade of estate duty. The Publisher and authors have dedicated this volume to the memory of John Tiley, Emeritus Professor of the Law of Taxation at the University of Cambridge, who died as it was going to press. The Cambridge History of Tax conferences were his idea and he was responsible for their planning. He also edited all six volumes in the series.
'An invaluable primer to some of the underlying tensions behind contemporary political debate' Financial Times It has always been an important part of British self-image to see the United Kingdom as an ancient, organic and sensibly managed place, in striking contrast to the convulsions of other European countries. Yet, as Julian Hoppit makes clear in this fascinating and surprising book, beneath the complacent surface the United Kingdom has in fact been in a constant, often very tense argument with itself about how it should be run and, most significantly, who should pay for what. The book takes its argument from an eighteenth century cartoon which shows the central state as the 'Dreadful Monster', gorging itself at the dinner table on all the taxes it can grab. Meanwhile the 'Poor Relations' - Scotland, Wales and Ireland, both poor because of tax but also poor in the sense of needing special treatment - are viewed in London as an endless 'drain on the state'. With drastically different levels of prosperity, population, industry, agriculture and accessibility between the United Kingdom's different nations, what is a fair basis for paying for the state?
Based on original research, this book marks an important advance in our understanding not only of the fiscal resources available to the English crown but also of the broader political culture of early Tudor England. An original study of taxation under the early Tudors. Explains the significance of the parliamentary lay taxation levied on individuals at this time. Demonstrates the value of the mass of personal tax assessments from this period to social, economic and local historians. Considers the critical position that parliamentary taxation occupies in constitutional history. Sheds light on the political conditions and attitudes prevalent in England under the early Tudors.
