Eighteenth Century Income Tax Re-Visited

William Pitt's introduction of a tax on income in 1799 has been acclaimed by many authors as if it represented the peak of achievement in the design of a tax system : an innovation which had been delayed only by the lack of an appropriated organisation for its administration, ¹ The bill for granting the new duties upon income had 17 opponents when 183 members of parliament voted in favour of its further consideration at the end of a major debate on 14 December 1798, and the bill passed 2 its third reading by a majority of 93 to 2 on 31 December 1798. ²