A Look Back at the Global Certainty of Taxation Across the Centuries

Abstract

While modern medicine continues to push the boundaries of longevity, if death were ever miraculously vanquished, taxation would nevertheless survive (albeit sans estate and inheritance taxes) – leaving us with only one of the two former certainties.

If Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod’s eye-opening tour of the global history of taxation teaches one overarching lesson, it is that, whatever the society, its rulers will extract a “tax” from the citizenry. The tax stories they relate span from the earliest victors who took payment via the “plunder” of their victims to taxation in the digital age.

Keywords: Taxation, Legal History, IRS, Tax Administration, Tax Legislation, Tax Policy, Economics