In today’s time taxes are not uncommon to us. We pay taxes for a lot of things to our respective governments, for example, we pay income tax just because we earn money, how bizarre right? But before governments existed, there were some very weird and bizarre kinds of taxes. Let’s see some of them:
1. Tax On Windows:
There was a time in England where people had to pay tax based on the number of windows they had. But in the year 1851, the lack of windows in one’s house started to affect a person’s health, hence the tax was removed.
2. Tax On Beards:
In the year 1705, a Russian King, King Peter the Great, started to tax bearded men. People had to shave their beard off else they would have to give tax for it.
3. Tax On Chimney:
England in 1660 started to tax fireplaces. To get away from this tax, people started to cover and hide their fireplaces. It was finally in 1689 that this tax was abolished.
4. Tax On Urine:
People in ancient Rome, used urine to clean, wash clothes, etc, because it has ammonia. Hence it was an expensive commodity. Romans issued a tax on public urinals of Rome on the distribution of urine.
5. Tax On Flushing The Toilet:
To avoid wastage of water, the state of Maryland in the USA started to tax people on the number of times they flushed their toilets.
