On Feb 5, 8:28 am, "Bret Cahill" <BretCah...@aol.com> wrote:

As the celebrated Montesquieu wrote,progressivetaxationwas "fair
thou not proportional."

Ah, another infamous Cahill distortion. Montesquieu said no such thin=

"In the taxing of persons, it would be an unjust proportion to
conform
exactly to that of property. At Athens the people were divided into
four classes. Those who drew five hundred measures of liquid or dry
fruit from their estates, paid a talent to the public; those who drew
three hundred measures, paid half a talent; those who had two hundred
measures paid ten minae; those of the fourth class paid nothing at
all. The tax was fair, tho' it was not proportionable; if it did
not
follow the proportion of people's property, it followed that of their
wants. It was judged that every man had an equal share of what was
necessary for nature; that whatsoever was necessary for nature, ought
not to be taxed."

-- Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu

Book XIII, Chapt. 7 _Spirit of Laws_ (1748)

1750 Thomas Nugent translation

Bret Cahill

Very good, that someone corrects themselves when wrong. There is hope
that this cyberspace can become more realistic and reflect how people
really communicate instead of some computer/machinehead/mishmash that
has predominated the milue since its inception.

Interesting question though about Greek ideas oftaxationand class,
which makes me think of Plato's Republic and his stereotypes about
skills, talents and differences which highly influenced the ROmans and
then Christianity with is talents. Am researching this Montesquieu
take on it, thanks.

GoogoWikiDoDo for you in the meantime, bad WiFiSniffy connection this
monin' gotta move on a little;

Taxes consist of direct tax or indirect tax; a direct tax is one paid
directly to the government by the persons (legal or natural) on whom
it is imposed (often accompanied by a tax return filed by the
taxpayer); an indirect tax (such as sales tax, value added tax (VAT),
or goods and services tax (GST)) is a tax collected by an intermediary
(such as a retail store) from the person who bears the ultimate
economic burden of the tax (such as the customer).

Funds provided bytaxationhave been used by states and their
functional equivalents throughout history to carry out the functions
such as:

enforcement of law and public order,
protection of property,
economic infrastructure -
roads, legal tender, enforcement of contracts, etc.,
public works,
social engineering,
the operation of government itself.
Most modern governments also use taxes to
fund welfare and public services, such as:

education systems,
health care systems,
pensions for the elderly,
unemployment benefits
energy, water and waste management systems,
public transportation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_taxht=

The three types of taxes are the proportional tax, theprogressive
tax, and the regressive tax.

1. A proportional tax imposes the same percentage oftaxationon
everyone, regardless of income. If the percentage tax rate is
constant, the average tax rate is constant, regardless of income. This
means that if a person's income goes up, the percentage of total
income paid in taxes doesn't change.

2. Theprogressivetax, imposes a higher percentage rate oftaxation
on those with higher incomes.Progressivetaxes use a marginal tax
rate that increases as the amount of taxable income increases.
Therefore, the percentage of income paid in taxes increases as income
goes up.

3. The regressive tax, which imposes a higher percentage rate oftaxationo=

state sales tax were 5%, the person with the lower income would pay a
greater percentage of their total income in sales tax.

http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Taxation.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_taxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki=

TAX HISTORY CHRONOLOGY

EGYPT

During the various reins of the Egyptian Pharaohs tax collectors were
known as scribes. During one period the scribes imposed a tax on
cooking oil. To insure that citizens were not avoiding the cooking
oil tax scribes would audit households to insure that appropriate
amounts of cooking oil were consumed and that citizens were not using
leavings generated by other cooking processes as a substitute for the
taxed oil.

GREECE

In times of war the Athenians imposed a tax referred to as eisphora.
No one was exempt from the tax which was used to pay for special
wartime expenditures. The Greeks are one of the few societies that
were able to rescind the tax once the emergency was over. When
additional resources were gained by the war effort the resources were
used to refund the tax.

Athenians imposed a monthly poll tax on foreigners, people who did not
have both an Athenian Mother and Father, of one drachma for men and a
half drachma for women. The tax was referred to as metoikion

ROMAN EMPIRE

The earliest taxes in Rome were customs duties on imports and exports
called portoria.

Caesar Augustus was consider by many to be the most brilliant tax
strategist of the Roman Empire. During his reign as "First Citizen"
the publicani were virtually eliminated as tax collectors for the
central government. During this period cities were given the
responsibility for collecting taxes. Caesar Augustus instituted an
inheritance tax to provide retirement funds for the military. The tax
was 5 percent on all inheritances except gifts to children and
spouses. The English and Dutch referred to the inheritance tax of
Augustus in developing their own inheritance taxes.

During the time of Julius Caesar a 1 percent sales tax was imposed.
During the time of Caesar Augustus the sales tax was 4 percent for
slaves and 1 percent for everything else.1

Saint Matthew was a publican (tax collector) from Capernaum during
Caesar Augustus reign. He was not of the old publicani but hired by
the local government to collect taxes.

In 60 A.D. Boadicea, queen of East Anglia led a revolt that can be
attributed to corrupt tax collectors in the British Isles. Her revolt
allegedly killed all Roman soldiers within 100 miles; seized London;
and it is said that over 80,000 people were killed during the revolt.
The Queen was able to raise an army of 230,000. The revolt was
crushed by Emperor Nero and resulted in the appointment of new
administrators for the British Isles.1

GREAT BRITAIN

The first tax assessed in England was during occupation by the Roman
Empire.

Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva was an Anglo-Saxon woman who lived in England during the
11th century. According to legend, Lady Godiva's husband Leofric, Earl
of Mercia, promised to reduce the high taxes he levied on the
residents of Coventry when she agreed to ride naked through the
streets of the town.

When Rome fell, the Saxon kings imposed taxes, referred to as
Danegeld, on land and property. The kings also imposed substantial
customs duties.

The 100 years War (the conflict between England and France) began in
1337 and ended in 1453. One of the key factors that renewed fighting
in 1369 was the rebellion of the nobles of Aquitaine over the
oppressive tax policies of Edward, The Black Prince.

Taxes during 14th century were veryprogressive; The 1377 Poll tax
noted that the tax on the Duke of Lancaster was 520 times the tax on
the common peasant.

Under the earliest taxing schemes an income tax was imposed on the
wealthy, office holders, and the clergy. A tax on movable property was
imposed on merchants. The poor paid little or no taxes.

Charles I was ultimately charged with treason and beheaded. However,
his problems with Parliament came about because of a disagreement in
1629 about the rights oftaxationafforded the King and the rights oftaxati=

The King's Writ stated that individuals should be taxed according to
status and means. Hence the idea of aprogressivetax on those with
the ability to pay was developed very early.

Other prominent taxes imposed during this period were taxes on land
and various excise taxes. To pay for the army commanded by Oliver
Cromwell, Parliament, in 1643, imposed excise taxes on essential
commodities (grain, meat, etc.). The taxes imposed by Parliament
extracted even more funds than taxes imposed by Charles I, especially
from the poor. The excise tax was very regressive, increasing the tax
on the poor so much that the Smithfield riots occurred in 1647. The
riots occurred because the new taxes lowered rural laborers ability to
buy wheat to the point where a family of four would starve. In
addition to the excise tax, the common lands used for hunting by the
peasant class were enclosed and peasant hunting was banned (hooray for
Robin Hood).

A precursor to the modern income tax we know today was invented by the
British in 1800 to finance their engagement in the war with Napoleon.
The tax was repealed in 1816 and opponents of the tax, who thought it
should only be used to finance wars, wanted all records of the tax
destroyed along with its repeal. Records were publicly burned by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer but copies were retained in the basement
of the tax court.4

COLONIAL AMERICA

Colonists were paying taxes under the Molasses Act which was modified
in 1764 to include import duties on foreign molasses, sugar, wine and
other commodities. The new act was known as the Sugar Act.

Because the Sugar Act did not raise substantial revenue amounts, the
Stamp Act was added in 1765.
The Stamp Act imposed a direct tax on all newspapers printed in the
colonies and most commercial and legal documents.

POST-REVOLUTION AMERICA

In 1794 Settlers west of the Alleghenies, in opposition to Alexander
Hamilton's excise tax of 1791, started what is now known as the
"Whiskey Rebellion" The ...

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