Taxation dates back to Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian tax reforms

Some of the earliest written documentation of taxes comes from a text on legal reforms written by the ancient King Urukagina, a ruler of the Mesopotamian city-state Lagash from about 2380 BC to 2360 BC.

“One of the taxes that he thinks people complain about the most are the funeral parlor taxes — I guess some things don’t ever really change,” Sharlach says. “People would gouge people trying to bury people and he’s trying to change those practices as well as some others.”

In addition to taxation, Urukagina also took steps to abolish polyandry — the practice of women taking more than one husband. “If they continued to do that, they would crush their teeth with bricks,” Sharlach says.

The tax bracket was broken out according to rank. For example, the equivalent of a general in the military might owe a cow, whereas a lower-ranking captain would owe a few sheep. “It was a real physical transaction,” she adds. “You were moving a live animal and literally handing it over.”

 

Will things ever change–the more you have the more you pay—is that Fair?