Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue

Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue is a book that provides a historical perspective on taxation and how it has evolved over time. Written by two leading authorities on taxation, Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, the book takes readers on a tour through various episodes in tax history, both preposterous and dramatic, from ancient times to the present day. The book covers a wide range of topics such as the British rebellion in Sierra Leone over a tax on huts, the cut in the tax on tea in 18th century Britain, and the scandals of the Panama Papers. The book also explores how past tax systems have similarities to current tax systems, and how history can provide clues to solving the tax problems of today. The book is described as entertaining and informative, and it is intended to provide readers with a new perspective on the subject of taxation.

An engaging and enlightening account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes ludicrous stories drawn from around the world and across the ages Governments have always struggled to tax in ways that are effective and tolerably fair. Sometimes they fail grotesquely, as when, in 1898, the British ignited a rebellion in Sierra Leone by imposing a tax on huts—and, in repressing it, ended up burning the very huts they intended to tax. Sometimes they succeed astonishingly, as when, in eighteenth-century Britain, a cut in the tax on tea massively increased revenue. In this entertaining book, two leading authorities on taxation, Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, provide a fascinating and informative tour through these and many other episodes in tax history, both preposterous and dramatic—from the plundering described by Herodotus and an Incan tax payable in lice to the (misremembered) Boston Tea Party and the scandals of the Panama Papers. Along the way, readers meet a colorful cast of tax rascals, and even a few tax heroes. While it is hard to fathom the inspiration behind such taxes as one on ships that tended to make them sink, Keen and Slemrod show that yesterday’s tax systems have more in common with ours than we may think. Georgian England’s window tax now seems quaint, but was an ingenious way of judging wealth unobtrusively. And Tsar Peter the Great’s tax on beards aimed to induce the nobility to shave, much like today’s carbon taxes aim to slow global warming. Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue is a surprising and one-of-a-kind account of how history illuminates the perennial challenges and timeless principles of taxation—and how the past holds clues to solving the tax problems of today.