Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages

Reading about tax law sometimes ranks in desirability terms alongside having a tooth extraction. In an effort to make the former less taxing, this book considers salient elements of modern tax with some of the most outrageous and memorable examples from the annals of history. Each chapter focuses on an aspect of tax theory, and the discussion is deepened through examples culled from primarily British or American tax history. The chapters are thematically arranged and include topics such as incidence (who pays taxes), fairness (both “vertical” for people with different incomes and “horizontal” for people in similar situations), efficiency (particularly not changing desirable behaviors but changing undesirable behaviors), and tax administration.

This book’s objective seems to be to teach while entertaining. The central point is that contemporary issues of taxation are the same as those encountered in the past, and sometimes well into the past of pharaonic Egypt and Ancient China. The book is an enjoyable read, and the examples memorable enough to quote either in a test or at a social event. However, given the scope of such a work, it necessarily covers only the basics of modern taxation.