Simon Black: Some of the dumbest taxes throughout history

From the ever eloquent Simon Black at the Sovereign Man:

In the days of ancient Rome, it was tradition for the upper class to liberate their slaves after a set number of years.

The Roman government, however, looked at this as an opportunity to generate revenue, and they taxed the newly freed slave on his freedom.

I can’t imagine anything more repulsive than paying tax on freedom. But they gave it a pretty good try–

In 1696, the English government under William III (William of Orange) passed a new law requiring subjects to pay a tax based on the number of windows in their homes.

Not willing to pay such a ridiculous tax on something as basic as sunlight, many Englishmen simply reduced the number of windows in their homes.

There was less light… and less ventilation… which ultimately became a public health problem.

To follow that up, England introduced a tax on candles in 1789. Making your own candles was outlawed unless you first obtained a license and paid tax on your own homemade candles.

As you could imagine, most people just did without.

Coupled with the window tax, this was a very dark time for England. And it took until the mid 19th century for the government to realize its stupidity and repeal the taxes.

But if that sounds excessive, consider the Johnstown Flood Tax.

In 1936, the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania was devastated by nasty flood, and in its efforts to ‘do something,’ the state assembly imposed an emergency, ‘temporary’ tax of 10% on all alcohol sold in the state.

This ‘temporary’ tax remained in place for nearly three decades, at which point it was raised to 15% in 1963, and again to 18% in 1968.

The ‘temporary’ tax still exists today, proving once again that there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary government measure.

Read the rest here

For as long people’s lives are politicized there will be “dumbest taxes or legal mandates”. That’s because populist politics have always been directed at addressing the symptom rather than the disease.

I am sure there are examples in the Philippines.