On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 6:31 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian <sur...@hserus.net> wrote: > Aadisht Khanna [31/03/12 09:54 +0530]: >> >> On 29-03-2012 20:44, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: >> Cheeni, do you have a citation for this, please? I was under the >> impression that income tax (and therefore any benefits or exemptions to >> it) was a twentieth century invention. > > > 1799 in england to be specific. by Pitt the Younger
eh? Kautilya’s Arthasastra (300BC) talks in detail about income tax, customs levies and trade taxes, and still earlier, the Manu Smriti also has sections on taxation of agricultural produce. Chinese emperors have for long played with income tax too. Sloth taxes were quite common too; if you didn't cultivate land under your ownership it was quite common to pay a tax for keeping it fallow. > There have been other taxes on income such as tithes since ancient times In ancient times the idea of personal property was non-existent, everything belonged to the tribe. It was in later years when the size of the tribe expanded to empire sized institutions that land taxes and tithes started becoming necessary.
