ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the interrelationships between accounting and taxation with a view to framing research questions that bring taxation clearly into view in accounting history scholarship. It traces taxation themes through several strands of accounting history scholarship and through scholarly publications in which taxation is sometimes, but always, the explicit research focus. Beyond the focus on the nuts and bolts, accounting histories of tax can be divided into two types: explorations of tax history for better understandings of accounting theory, practice and institutions; and explorations of tax history to understand accounting in its broader social, political and economic context. Challenges for accounting historians interested in taxation include the research and study of detailed taxation rules and practices and finding references to taxation in works with a primary focus on accounting theory, practice and development. Taxation requires accounting to record the taking from those taxed and the giving to those on whose behalf tax is levied.
