taxation
Raising of money from individuals and organizations by state and local governments, to pay for the goods and services that they provide, for example, education, health care, defence, and social security. Taxation can be direct (a deduction from income) or indirect (added to the purchase price of goods or services – that is, a tax on consumption).
Progressive taxes take an increasing percentage of income as it rises; proportional tax rates take the same percentage of income across all levels; regressive rates take a higher percentage as income is reduced. Direct taxes tend to be proportional or progressive, whereas indirect taxes are generally regressive. Taxes have important social as well as economic purposes; high excise taxes, applied to specific commodities (particularly tobacco, alcohol, or fuel), can be used to discourage consumption for health or environmental reasons.
taxation - events
| 240 BC | Rome, Sicily | Rome takes over full control of Sicily and stations a legion there; it treats Sicily more like a defeated country than it has ever treated any part of Italy. Sicilian peasants are heavily taxed and an increasing amount of corn is imported from the island, Roman farmers now turning more to the olive and the vine. |
| 12 May 1194 | England, France | Having raised money by the sale of charters and a new tax called the Carucage (based on the Danegeld), King Richard I the Lionheart leaves England to re-establish his authority in his French lands. |
| 1480 | Castile, Spain | The Cortes (parliament) at Toledo, Castile, grants concessions to the Castilian towns against the nobility, rescinding the grant of land and the rights to raise taxes and wage war, and returning them to the crown, thereby raising 30 million maravedis annually. The construction of new castles is forbidden and many existing ones are demolished. |
| 9 January 1799 | UK | The British prime minister William Pitt the Younger introduces the first income tax in Britain, to finance the war against France, at a rate of 10% on all incomes over £200 per year. |
| 26 June 1846 | UK | The British prime minister, Robert Peel, repeals the Corn Laws to allow the unhindered importation of grain into Ireland in an effort to alleviate the famine caused there by the failure of the potato crop. His Conservative Party wants to retain the Corn Laws to protect the position of the landed elite and splits over the issue. |
| 1861 | UK | The withdrawal of the tax on paper leads to a drop in newspaper prices in Britain. |
| 1863 | UK | The British government passes the Revenue Act, which aims to encourage the drinking of beer, rather than spirits, by increasing the tax rate for spirits. |
| 27 August 1894 | USA | The Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act, introducing a 2% income tax, becomes law in the USA, passed by Congress without receiving the assent of US president Grover Cleveland. It is the nation's first graduated income tax. |
| 1967 | Denmark | Denmark is the first country to introduce VAT (Value Added Tax) on retail products. |
| 1987 | UK | The Conservative government in Britain introduces Personal Equity Plans (PEPs), a scheme for tax-free share investment. |
