We like to complain (and for good reason) about the litany of taxes imposed on us by various levels of government, but this post on Neatorama details some bizarre taxes through history that make current ones seem tame. Peter the Great, czar of Russia, imposed a tax on souls in 1718…meaning everybody had to pay [...]

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Toronto released their budget this week and other than the usual tax hikes for property owners, this interesting post on Eye Daily about the gibberish and jargon of a city budget. It lists the specialized terms the budget contains to describe its expenditures and revenues, and the list is incomprehensible, even to me, a soon-to-be [...]

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Not mine, but that of historian John Steele Gordon (via Tax Foundation): In the 18th century, real property was probably the best measure available of a person’s ability to pay taxes. That’s because it generated income from farming or things like water mills, ship yards and stores. Only the very rich had residences on town [...]

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