Histories of Tax Evasion, Avoidance and Resistance by Schönhärl, Korinna; Hürlimann, Gisela; Rohde, Dorothea;

Short description:

Shows how different groups and individuals around the globe have succeeded or failed in not paying their due taxes, whether in kind or in cash, on their properties, or on their crops. Addresses questions of tax morale and fairness, and how social and political inequality was negotiated through taxation.

Long description:

Tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax resistance are widespread phenomena in political, economic, social and fiscal history from antiquity through medieval, early modern and modern times. Histories of Tax Evasion, Avoidance and Resistance shows how different groups and individuals around the globe have succeeded or failed in not paying their due taxes, whether in kind or in cash, on their properties or on their crops.

It analyses how, throughout history, wealthy and poor taxpayers have tried to avoid or reduce their tax burden by negotiating with tax authorities, through practices of legal or illegal tax evasion, by filing lawsuits, seeking armed resistance or by migration, and how state authorities have dealt with such acts of claim making, defiance, open resistance or elusion. It fills an important research gap in tax history, addressing questions of tax morale and fairness, and how social and political inequality was negotiated through taxation. It gives rich insights into the development of citizen-state relationships throughout the course of history. The book comprises case studies from Ancient Athens, Roman Egypt, Medieval Europe, Early Modern Mexico, the Ottoman Empire, Nigeria under British colonial rule, the United Kingdom of the early 20th century, Greece during the Second World War, as well as West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States in the 20th century, including transnational entanglements in the world of late-modern offshore finance and taxation. The authors are experts in fiscal, economic, financial, legal, social and/or cultural history.

The book is intended for students, researchers and scholars of economic and financial history, social and world history and political economy.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 license.

Table of Contents:

Introduction Part I: Negotiating Lower Taxes, or No Taxes at All 1. Tax Evaders in Classical Athens: Attacks and Strategies of Defence in Attic Oratory 2. The Alcabala Sales Tax Administration in Colonial Mexico: Avoidance strategies in Bourbon Colonial Mexico 3. Imperial Taxation and Local Agency: Tax Avoidance and Tax Resistance in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Germany (Saxony and Thuringia) Part II: Resisting and Opposing Taxes 4. Not Paying Taxes in Roman Egypt 5. "Taxing" the Tribes in the Ottoman Empire: The Case of the Tribes of Mutki, 1839-1908 6. Tax Evasion as Means of Resistance in Occupied Greece, 1941-1944 7. Women´s Protests against Colonial Taxation in the Eastern Provinces of Nigeria Part III: Avoiding Tax Avoidance: Counter Strategies by State Authorities 8. Verbally Resisting Taxes in Medieval England: Arguments, Anger and the (In)Ability to Prevent Tax-Avoidance in the Reign of Henry III 9. How to Create a Taxpaying Spirit: A Transnational Examination of a US American and a Western German Tax Education Film in and after World War II 10. “Exceptional” Tax Amnesties: A Common Swiss Way of Fighting Tax Fraud in the Twentieth Century Part IV: Sparing the Rich and Companies from Taxation 11. "There is no wrongdoing in avoiding taxes." The Land Union’s Tax Resistance in Great Britain, 1900–1930s 12. Populist Ambivalence to Tax Evasion: The 1962 Campaign Against Dividend and Interest Withhold-ing in the US 13. “I am a professional tax evader”. Multinationals, business groups and tax havens, 1950s to 1980s 14. Tax System Credibility vs. Banking System Reputation? Tax Evasion from Sweden to Switzerland in the Early 1970s