The word “tax” is from the Latin taxo, meaning “I estimate.”

 

Approximately 90% of people who employ housekeepers and babysitters cheat on their taxes.

 

If someone reports their company for tax evasion in the U.S., he or she will receive 30% of the amount collected.

 

The federal tax code was 400 pages in 1913. In 2010 it was 70,000 pages.

 

Roman emperor Vespasian placed a tax on urine in the 1st century A.D. Urine at that time was collected and used as a source of ammonia for tanning hides and laundering garments. When his son complained about the disgusting nature of the urine tax, Vespasian allegedly replied, pecunia non olet  or “money does not stink.”

 

The number of words in Atlas Shrugged is 645,000. The Bible has about 700,000 words. The number of words in the Federal Tax Code: 3,700,000.

 

In 1691, England taxed the number of windows on a house. Consequently, houses began to be built with very few windows or people would close up existing windows. When people began to suffer health problems from lack of windows/air, the tax was finally repealed in 1851.

 

Russian Emperor Peter the Great placed a tax on beards in 1705. He hoped that the tax would encourage men to have a clean-shaven look that was popular in Western Europe.

 

England has a tax on televisions. Color TVs are taxed more than black-and-white TVs. However, if a blind person has a television, he or she has to pay only half the tax.

 

Biblical Israel split into two kingdoms after Solomon’s death in large part because his son the new king refused to cut taxes.

 

Cortez was able to defeat Montezuma largely because he incited a tax revolt among the peasants.

 

England rose to power under Elizabeth the Great in large part because of her low tax policies. Concomitantly, Spain was losing power because of the onerous tax and religious policies of her brother-in-law, King Philip.

 

The U.S. Civil War was not about slavery but mainly about taxation.

 

According to one historian, plane geometry was not invented by Euclid but by ancient tax collectors who wanted to determine land size for harvest taxes.

 

There is no known civilization that did not tax. Even the very first known civilization, the Sumerians, recorded their tax history on clay cones.

 

Zedekiah, king of the Jews, had his eyes put out by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, for his tax defiance.