The countdown is on: only 364 more days until the deadline for filing your 2008 tax return!
As a kid, April 15th was just another day for me. Then came high school and college where I got a little taste of what it meant to pay income tax (only to get it all back at a later date). Once adulthood rolled around, I understood all too well the groans of dread and despair.
I found a fascinating collection of little known facts concerning the history of taxes, both around the world and in the United States. Some of these are amusing, but I must warn you, others may make you want to pull your hair out!
Did you know...
- The first record of tax collectors were depicted in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings from around 2000 B.C.
- Roman Emperor, Nero, levied many odd taxes including one on urine (Romans collected urine from public latrines to be used for tanning leather).
- In A.D. 1404, the British Parliament passed the world's first income tax. It was so hated that after its repeal, all records thereof were burned.
- In order to westernize Russia, Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards -- which he considered a "ridiculous ornament."
- During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI's tax collectors were rounded up and beheaded on the guillotine.
- In 1792, the U.S. imposed a "sin tax" on whiskey, sparking the "Whiskey Rebellion."
- To finance the civil war, the U.S. Congress instituted the first income tax in 1862. It was meant to be temporary.
- In 1943, the withholding tax on wages was introduced. Within two years, the IRS's earnings went from $60 million to $43 billion!
- The Declaration of Independence has 1,337 words -- the Bible has 773,00 words -- today's tax laws top 7-million words.
- In 2005, Americans worked 70 days just to pay off federal taxes, and another 37 days for local taxes.
- Each year, the IRS prints nearly 8-billion pages of forms and instructions. That's enough to wrap the earth 28 times.
- An estimated 300,000 trees are cut down each year for IRS forms. That number is shrinking due to e-filing.
- With 114,000 employees, the IRS is twice the size of the CIA and five times as big as the FBI.
At this point, this could very easily devolve into a political rant regarding the immense sums of taxpayer money wasted by the U.S. government. However, this is not a political blog. What can we glean from this spiritually?
Keep in mind the Roman government of Jesus' day taxed its own citizens heavily. No doubt, first century Christians did not agree with much of what was being done with their hard-earned money. Tax collectors were despised more in those days than any IRS agent in our own. Nonetheless, what did Christ teach in regard to paying taxes?
And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?" But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." And they brought one. And he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar's." Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him.
Mark 12:13-17, ESV
Believe me...I know vitamins I,R, and S can be bitter pills to swallow. But the teaching of our Lord in this matter is clear. The disciples of Jesus are to abide by the system of taxation imposed by the nation in which they live. Moreover, we are to do so honestly.
r2
