“In the UK if you own a television in your home, you must pay an annual fee, formally called a television license, for each television you own. The funds are used to finance programming on BBC, whether you watch those channels or not.” – S Black
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile ~ 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.
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