The poll tax was essentially a lay subsidy, a tax on the
movable property of most of the population, to help fund war. It had first been levied in 1275 and continued under different names until the 17th century. People were taxed a
percentage of the assessed value of their movable goods. That percentage varied from year to year and place to place, and which goods could be taxed differed between
urban and
rural locations.
Churchmen were exempt, as were the poor, workers in the
Royal Mint, inhabitants of the
Cinque Ports,
tin workers in
Cornwall and
Devon, and those who lived in the
Palatinate counties of
Cheshire and
Durham.
14th century In 1376 Britain had been fighting the
Hundred Years War against France for about fifty years, and it was increasingly difficult to finance the war. In 1377 the
Bad Parliament first levied a poll tax at the request of
John of Gaunt the de facto head of government at the time. The tax covered a far greater share of the population than previous taxes. It was levied again in
1379 on a basis graded by social class. Finally in
1381 it was a combination of both flat rate and graduated assessments. The minimum amount payable was set at 4d, however tax collectors had to account for a 12d a head mean assessment. and has been credited as one of the main reasons behind the
Peasants' Revolt in that year.
17th century The poll tax was resurrected during the 17th century, usually related to a military emergency. It was imposed by
Charles I in 1641 to finance the raising of the army against the Scottish and Irish uprisings. With the
Restoration of
Charles II in 1660, the
Convention Parliament of 1660 instituted a poll tax to finance the disbanding of the
New Model Army (pay arrears, etc.) through the '
(12 Cha. 2. c. 9), as amended by the (12 Cha. 2. c. 10) and the ' (
12 Cha. 2. c. 28). The poll tax was assessed according to "rank", e.g. dukes paid £100, earls £60, knights £20, esquires £10. Eldest sons paid two-thirds of their father's rank, widows paid a third of their late husband's rank. The members of the
livery companies paid according to company's rank (e.g. masters of first-tier guilds like the Mercers paid £10, whereas masters of fifth-tier guilds, like the Clerks, paid 5 shillings). Professionals also paid differing rates, e.g. physicians (£10), judges (£20), advocates (£5), attorneys (£3), and so on. Anyone with property (land, etc.) paid 40 shillings per £100 earned, anyone over the age of 16 and unmarried paid twelvepence and everyone else over 16 paid sixpence. To finance the
Nine Years' War, a poll tax was imposed again by
William III and
Mary II in 1689 with the '
(1 Will. & Mar. c. 13), reassessed in 1690 adjusting rank for fortune with the (2 Will. & Mar. c. 2), and then again in 1691 back to rank irrespective of fortune with the (3 Will. & Mar. c. 6). The poll tax was imposed again in 1692 with the (5 & 6 Will. & Mar. c. 14), and one final time in 1698 with the ' (
9 Will. 3. c. 38), the last poll tax in England until the 20th century. A poll tax ("polemoney") was simultaneously imposed in
Scotland by the
Edinburgh parliament in 1693, again in 1695, and two in 1698. As the greater weight of the 17th century poll taxes fell primarily upon the wealthy and powerful, it was not too unpopular. There were grumblings within the taxed ranks about lack of differentiation by income within ranks. Ultimately, it was the inefficiency of their collection (what they brought in routinely fell far short of expected revenues) that prompted the government to abandon the poll tax after 1698. Far more controversial was the
hearth tax introduced by the
Fire-Hearth and Stoves Taxation Act 1662 (
14 Cha. 2. c. 10), which imposed a hefty two shillings on every hearth in a family dwelling, which was easier to count than persons. Heavier, more permanent and more regressive than the poll tax proper, the intrusive entry of tax inspectors into private homes to count hearths was a very sore point, and it was promptly repealed with the
Glorious Revolution in 1689. It was replaced with a "window tax" in 1695 since inspectors could count windows from outside homes.
20th century The Community Charge, popularly dubbed the "poll tax", was a tax to fund
local government, instituted in 1989 by the government of
Margaret Thatcher. It replaced the
rates that were based on the notional rental value of a house. The abolition of rates was in the
Conservative Party manifesto for the
1979 general election; the replacement was proposed in the Green Paper of 1986,
Paying for Local Government based on ideas developed by Dr.
Madsen Pirie and
Douglas Mason of the
Adam Smith Institute. It was a
fixed tax per adult resident, but there was a reduction for those with lower household income. Each person was to pay for the services provided in their community. This proposal was contained in the
Conservative Party manifesto for the
1987 general election. The new tax replaced the rates in Scotland from the start of the 1988/89 financial year and in England and Wales from the start of the 1990/91 financial year. The system was very unpopular since many thought it shifted the tax burden from the rich to the poor, as it was based on the number of occupants living in a house, rather than on the estimated market value of the house. Many tax rates set by local councils proved to be much higher than earlier predictions since the councils realized that not they, but the central government would be blamed for the tax, which led to resentment, even among some who had supported the introduction of it. The tax in different boroughs differed because local taxes paid by businesses varied and grants by central government to local authorities sometimes varied capriciously. Mass protests were called by the
All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation with which the vast majority of local
Anti-Poll Tax Unions (APTUs) were affiliated. In Scotland, the APTUs called for mass nonpayment, which rapidly gathered widespread support and spread as far as
England and Wales even though non-payment meant that people could be prosecuted. In some areas, 30% of former ratepayers defaulted. While
owner-occupiers were easy to tax, nonpayers who regularly changed accommodation were almost impossible to trace. The cost of collecting the tax rose steeply, and its returns fell. Unrest grew and resulted in a number of
poll tax riots. The most serious was in a protest at
Trafalgar Square, London, on 31 March 1990, of more than 200,000 protesters.
Terry Fields, Labour MP for
Liverpool Broadgreen, was jailed for 60 days for his refusal to pay the poll tax. This unrest was a factor in the fall of Thatcher. Her successor,
John Major, replaced the Community Charge with the
Council Tax, similar to the rating system that preceded the Community Charge. The main differences were that it was levied on capital value rather than notional rental value of a property, and that it had a 25% discount for single-occupancy dwellings. In 2015,
Lord Waldegrave reflected in his memoirs that the Community Charge was all his own work and that it was a serious mistake. Although he felt the policy looked like it would work, it was implemented differently from his predictions "They went gung-ho and introduced it overnight in one go, which was never my plan and I thought they must know what they were doing – but they didn't." ==France==