ABSTRACT
Tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax resistance are widespread phenomena in political, economic, social and fiscal history from antiquity through medieval, early modern and modern times. Histories of Tax Evasion, Avoidance and Resistance shows how different groups and individuals around the globe have succeeded or failed in not paying their due taxes, whether in kind or in cash, on their properties or on their crops.
It analyses how, throughout history, wealthy and poor taxpayers have tried to avoid or reduce their tax burden by negotiating with tax authorities, through practices of legal or illegal tax evasion, by filing lawsuits, seeking armed resistance or by migration, and how state authorities have dealt with such acts of claim making, defiance, open resistance or elusion. It fills an important research gap in tax history, addressing questions of tax morale and fairness, and how social and political inequality was negotiated through taxation. It gives rich insights into the development of citizen-state relationships throughout the course of history. The book comprises case studies from Ancient Athens, Roman Egypt, Medieval Europe, Early Modern Mexico, the Ottoman Empire, Nigeria under British colonial rule, the United Kingdom of the early 20th century, Greece during the Second World War, as well as West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States in the 20th century, including transnational entanglements in the world of late-modern offshore finance and taxation. The authors are experts in fiscal, economic, financial, legal, social and/or cultural history.
The book is intended for students, researchers and scholars of economic and financial history, social and world history and political economy.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 license.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |16 pages
The Ability and Intention of Not Paying Taxes in History
part I|52 pages
Negotiating Lower Taxes, or No Taxes at All
chapter 181|18 pages
Tax Evaders in Classical Athens?
chapter 2|14 pages
The Alcabala Sales Tax Administration
chapter 3|18 pages
Imperial Taxation and Local Agency
part II|66 pages
Resisting and Opposing Taxes
chapter 5|15 pages
“Taxing” the Tribes in the Ottoman Empire
part III|50 pages
Avoiding Tax Avoidance: Counter Strategies by State Authorities
chapter 1368|17 pages
Verbally Resisting Taxes in Medieval England
chapter 9|14 pages
How to Create a Taxpaying Spirit
chapter 10|17 pages
“Exceptional” Tax Amnesties
part IV|72 pages
Sparing the Rich and Companies from Taxation?