by The Economist
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| It wasn’t always cold hard cash that the taxman was after. Our cartoonist looks at how tax has evolved through the ages.
Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: http://econ.trib.al/rWl91R7 Most modern societies employ some sort of taxation, but taxes have not always involved money. The ancient Chinese paid their taxes with pressed tea, and Jivaro tribesmen in Brazil paid with shrunken heads. Trade soon became a common source of tax revenues with tolls and customs duties being collected from travelling merchants. Later, tangible items owned by citizens and subjects like property and land became targets of government tax collectors. Income tax, the biggest source of revenue in most countries today is a comparatively recent invention. In the 20th century, governments were spending increasingly large sums of money on defence and social welfare programmes. To help underwrite these expenditures, income taxes were deployed. As income taxes have become increasingly unpopular other forms of taxation have been explored. Indirect taxes on consumption like the value added tax are now commonly used. The overall level of taxation varies among countries. The United States’s tax revenues amount to about one third of its GDP, whereas in Sweden it is closer to half. There are some who believe any tax is a bad tax but public goods and government activity need to run on something. Daily Watch: mind-stretching short films every day of the working week. |
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