The Ability and Intention of Not Paying Taxes in History. Some Introductory Observations

Jean Bodin's list on how the absolutist monarchical state could raise its revenue ranked taxation only in seventh place. From a modern legal perspective, taxes are compulsory transfers of resources that households and enterprises pay to one or several government bodies without receiving an individual, specific benefit in return. Historians have dealt with not paying taxes in various contexts, such as analysing tax resistance and tax resistance movements in history. Tax law is best understood as an outcome of long-term, often conflictual, negotiations and as an expression of specific political mentalities and ideologies. As a consequence, tax law and sometimes even the tax juridical system have a strongly politicised character. Loopholes in tax legislation that enable or facilitate avoidance or evasion can thus be regarded as a result of the interest-driven politics of parliamentary majorities, as the success of concerted lobby pressure.