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2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Taxation and Rebellion: A Historical and Philosophical Perspective

Author : Jane Frecknall-Hughes

Published in: Taxation in Crisis

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

A state’s right to tax its citizens and the benefits a citizen has the right to expect from the state if he/she pays tax are topics that have been long been hotly debated. Although less emphasis nowadays is placed on the philosophical underpinnings of such topics, they remain relevant in the debate about a state’s right to tax its citizens living permanently overseas (e.g., the USA’s) and to the erosion of national tax sovereignty by the alleged “tax arbitrage” practices of multinational companies in utilising the differences between tax jurisdictions to their advantage. This chapter considers the key debate which raged in the late 1700s between thinkers such as Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Thomas Paine about Great Britain’s right to tax her colonies, although two of their predecessors—John Locke and David Hume—set the context for much of their thinking.

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next chapter Majority Rule, Rights, and Taxation
Footnotes
1
The process by which ideas about taxation spread and developed is fascinating in its own right, and there are many writers, especially from Europe, who had considerable influence before, during, and after the Enlightenment period on the philosophers considered here (see, e.g., Frecknall-Hughes 2007, 2014a; Snape 2012).
 
2
For example, in Israel in 1948, a tax system was enthusiastically welcomed. Likhovsky (2007, p. 672) cites the recollection of a tax official, during the first months following independence, of a willingness to pay higher taxes than would have been paid to the British Mandate, and refers to an argument between two well-known citizens of Haifa as to who was the first to pay income tax to the provisional government. Likhovsky also comments on the different attitudes to paying tax held by Israel’s influx of new citizens post-1948, dependent on their national origin. For many, non-payment of tax was the norm, as part of a lifestyle or culture which kept them out of sight of government authority.
 
3
Much of the material in this chapter is also discussed and explored in Frecknall-Hughes (2014b), but from the point of view, predominantly, of the continuing importance of taxation history.
 
4
It should be acknowledged that scholars have different interpretations of Locke’s theory of property (see Arneil 1996; Buckle 2001; Tully 1980, 1993a, b, 1994). For a recent review, see Snape and Frecknall-Hughes (2017).
 
5
Possibly also the concept extends to the protection of Great Britain’s growing international activities (see O’Brien and Hunt 1993, p. 170).
 
6
In his pamphlet, Some Consideration of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money (1691), cited by Dome, 2004, p. 12, Note 6.
 
7
Although The Second Treatise of Government was published while Locke was alive, he thought it too dangerous to acknowledge his authorship of the work.
 
8
This idea of tax being justified as the price paid for protection was also espoused by Locke’s predecessor, Thomas Hobbes (see Jackson 1973, pp 176–177).
 
9
The extent to which power affects taxpayer compliance has now been extensively examined (see, e.g., Kirchler et al. 2008, 2010; Kogler et al. 2013; Muehlbacher and Kirchler 2010; Muehlbacher et al. 2011; and Wahl et al. 2010).
 
10
The latter in the posthumously published Of the Origin of Government (1777).
 
11
This would be in the context of excise duties.
 
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Metadata
Title
Taxation and Rebellion: A Historical and Philosophical Perspective
Author
Jane Frecknall-Hughes
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Taxation in Crisis

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65309-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-65310-5

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65310-5_1