Introduction
Taxes play a big role in society nowadays. Everything we earn and spend is taxed. There are 2 types of taxes, Direct and Indirect i.e. the 2 Ugly Sisters of Tax. Direct refers to Income Tax and Indirect refers to VAT (Value Added Tax) Thomas Paine looks at how tax was shifted from the rich to the poor thereafter a tension arose.
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
In Chapter 5 of Thomas Paine’s book, it looks at what has caused tension surrounding Indirect and Direct taxes. Direct being Land Tax and Indirect being excise tax. Thomas Paine made reference to the Great Excise Revolt 1733, where land tax is to be abolished and excise tax increased. Land Tax was paid by the wealthy with large estates and excise tax being paid by the poor.
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aristocrats, used the power to ward off the taxes imposed on them and transfer such a burden upon items of consumption and as a result the wealthy would be least affected, or even exempted
The tension lies where Land tax is decreasing and Excise tax increasing. Thomas Paine stated that taxes would increase through the consumption of beer. The Aristocrats/Wealthy were not affected by the increase as they ‘brewed their own beer free of this duty’ (Paine.T, 1792). This affected those who were unable to brew their own beer and had to purchase it.
Land Tax was no longer the biggest share paid, Excise tax was. Individuals that owned small estates were also affected by ‘taxes thrown on articles of consumption’ (Paine.T, 1792) because they consume more articles compared to the wealthy that just own large
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Poor rates are direct taxes, therefore excise taxes.
“when taxes were very low, the poor were able to maintain themselves; and there were no poor rates. In the present state of things, a labouring man, …does not pay less than between seven and eight pounds a year in taxes. He is not sensible of this… disguised to him in the articles which he buys ...he is consequently disabled from providing.”(Paine.T, 1792)
Some people are unaware of the fact that they are paying more tax than normal. So low income households were losing a higher percentage of their salary to the tax increase and implementation of the poor-rates. ‘It is no other than the consequence of the excessive burden of taxes’ (Paine.T, 1792). Poor-rates can be abolished and thereafter setting aside double the taxes that will be re-distributed to the poor.
Fair
After the Seven Years Way England was broke for she had spent more money needed to win the war. Also winning the war gave the colonist a “we can do it spirit”. However because England now was facing debt she decided to tax the colonies. One the first acts passed was the sugar act passed in 1764. This Act was the raise revenue in American colonies. What it did was lowered the tax from six penses to three penses per gallon on foreign molasses. Molasses is a product made by refining sugarcane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. This upset the colonist because before the sugar act they didn’t have to pay the tax so even if it was lowered that meant nothing for they now had to pay for it. A year later, in 1765, the Britain’s passed another act known as the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act put a tax on stamped paper, publications, playing cards, etc. Because it was on all paper products in a way it affected everyone; from the papers for the upper class such as lawyers, publications such as newspapers for the middle class, and playing cards for the lower class for entertainment. Next, the Townshend Act passed by Charles Townshend. This came in 1767, which imposed taxes on colonial tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass which just like the Stamp Act affected all of the classes in the colonist in the Americas. Though this act was removed three years later in 1770, it still left colonists with a warning that conditions may become worse. Around 1773, parliament passed the Intolerable Acts one of those acts which affected taxation was the Bost...
Taxes. We hate to love them and love to hate them. The mere mention of the word can stir heated debates and has done so for centuries. None were more prevalent than during colonial times. During this time, with the British Parliament on one side and the colonists on the other, both argued, either verbally or in written text, about which side did or did not have the right to tax the colonies. Soame Jenyns was one of these men who sided with the mother country in the tax debate.
Parliamentary taxes on the colonial peoples started with the Navigation Acts in 1660, but they were not an issue to the colonial people because they were too difficult to enforce. Then in 1764 the Stamp Act was passed, this was the first direct tax on the colonists. The Navigations Acts and the Sugar Acts of 1764, which was a tax placed on imported molasses and sugar, had not directly affected colonists, it affected the merchants. The merchants in hand would just raise prices. The stamp act was completely different. It said that any document or printed item would need to have a stamp placed on it purchased from the British government. The Stamp Act upset the colonist...
introducing more tax on goods as they were in need of money due to the
After the Revolutionary War, the Massachusetts legislature imposed high taxes to pay war debts. Rural farmers could not pay their taxes and faced forfeiture of their farms. Resentment of the taxes increased to the point that the farmers began to break up court sessions to prevent judges from ruling that specific farms should be sold to pay tax bills.
Sixteenth Amendment- Authorization of an Income Tax – Progressives thought this would slow down the rising wealth of the richest Americans by using a sliding or progressive scale where the wealthier would pay more into the system. In 1907, Roosevelt supported the tax but it took two years until his Successor, Taft endorsed the constitutional amendment for the tax. The Sixteenth Amendment was finally ratified by the states in 1913. The origin of the income tax came William J Bryan in 1894 to help redistribute wealth and then from Roosevelt and his dedication to reform of corporations. I agree with an income tax to pay for all of our government systems and departments, but I believe there was a misfire with “redistributing wealth.” The redistribution is seen in welfare systems whereby individuals receive money to live. This is meant to be a temporary assistance, but sadly, most that are in the system are stuck due to lack of assistance in learning how to escape poverty. There are a lot of government funded programs, but there is no general help system to help lift people up and stay up, so there continues a cycle of
Imagine living in a country where no citizen has a say in the government’s actions. Envision a nation where the ruler can tax people without permission and the common people are forced to obey without question. That was life in The Colonies before the year of 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was created. Great Britain passed laws whether it benefited the people or not. Before the Declaration of Independence was composed, a plethora of unnecessary taxes were approved. These taxes sent many colonists into debt. According to “The Declaration of Independence, 1776,” published on Office of the Historian, a famous tax called the Stamp Act was passed by Parliament. This tax forced colonists to purchase stamps for every paper product
During the early development stages of our country, there came a time when the overpowering mother country of Britain imposed a new system of taxation to control the colonies and the colonists. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the first step in bringing the new taxation system into affect. The Sugar Act, which replaced the Molasses Act of 1733, was designed to raise income without regulating the trading system that the colonies had established. Soon, Britain began to establish methods of taxes without any method of representation of the colonies and this angered the colonists. The power of Parliament to tax the colonies for the purpose of trade regulation had always been ac...
With America being as diverse as it is, people would think everyone is united, but is that completely true? Thomas Paine shows his view of America as being a harmonious country with no problems. Even though over the years America has become a lot more diverse, that does not signify, all of the sudden, we have become a problem-free nation, comparable to what Thomas Paine thinks. Every nation has difficulties, and that includes America. America is nowhere close to being a perfect nation, but some nations have a lot more conflicts than America; and we have been trying, over the years, to become closer as a stronger country. Even with diversity growing in America, supporting Paine's argument, the United States is not a complete, harmonious nation,
too happy about it. The next day after they heard this news, a huge mob
The man with the most impact that changed history was Thomas Paine. He created a pamphlet called Common Sense . Not only did he have an impact he had a somewhat negative life. His burial was very awful. Paines beliefs in religion was different from other people. That belief caused him to create a book the age of reason.
Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham (a supposedly distant relative) are told to have taxed the poor until they had nothing left.
Taxation has always been a major controversy. Just like any major corporation, the government is constantly looking to raise revenue. The easiest and fairest way to do this is by taxing the people. However, how the people will be taxed is always an issue.
Taxation with out representation was a new set of problems, from the Stamp Act in 1765 to the Tea Act in 1773. Tensions started growing when Britain started placing the first taxes on every single colonial written document. The documents had to be stamped to show that the tax o...
Black, P. A. (2006). 'Sin' Taxes and Poor Households: Unanticipated Effects. South African Journal Of Economics, 74(1), 131-136.