There seems to be some contention on the exact date (1705 is frequently cited online), but several outlets report it was on September 5th 1698 that Russian tsar Peter the Great introduced his famed beard tax - which is pretty much what it says on the tin.
Yes, for a majority of the 18th century Russian men were forced to pay tax on their beards after tsar Peter decided excessive facial hair was not something he wanted to encourage amongst citizens. To prove they had contributed their fair share if an inspector quizzed them, paid-up bearded folk were given a silver coin (pictured above) featuring the friendly slogan “the beard is a superfluous burden”. The tax was repealed in 1772.
Bizarrely, the Russian beard tax was not the first of its sort: King Henry VIII of England - himself of a bearded persuasion - introduced facial hair taxation more than a century and a half earlier.
England has enjoyed its fair share of peculiar taxes over the years. 1784 saw the introduction of the hat tax, again self-explanatory. There were surprisingly progressive intentions behind the hat tax, with the government working on the basis that wealthy individuals would buy more hats and therefore contribute more revenue than less well off individuals.
Retailers, meanwhile, had to buy and display a license, informing the public that they were indeed legitimate hat salespeople. It is recorded that one poor fellow named John Collins attempted to forge the license plaque, and was promptly - and we’d suggest harshly - sentenced to death.
Similar English endeavours around this time included the window tax and short-lived glove tax. The former was based on the amount of windows on any given property, with many (stingy) property owners resorting to bricking up or otherwise blocking out some windows to avoid paying. Again, the idea was those who could afford large properties would ultimately contribute more, with the poor exempt. The window tax was in place for over 150 years, up until 1851.
A cowards' tax?
Briefly dialling back to feudal times, it would be remiss not to mention good old ‘scutage’, and not just because the word sounds funny. This was an entirely optional payment that allowed knights to buy themselves out of military service by paying a fee to the Crown.
The monarchy used it as a source of revenue, while the knight was suddenly granted a higher chance of surviving the night - basically, everyone won, except maybe the side that lost too many knights to scutage. We Irish can be proud there was even a special ‘scutage of Ireland’ for those warriors trying to avoid this wild island of ours.
And what would a discussion of bizarre taxes be without a mention of Tennessee’s infamous ‘crack tax’? This was a genuine taxation on illegal drugs, requiring drug dealers to anonymously pay at the revenue office in return for a certificate that confirmed they had indeed paid tax on their ‘business’. Hence, the dealer could avoid being charged with tax evasion (the bane of many a master criminal, including Al Capone), although obviously they could still be charged with breaking hundreds of other laws.
The crack tax was - amazingly - introduced as recently as 2005, but was wisely repealed four years later after being deemed ‘unconstitutional’ by the state’s Supreme Court. Utah repealed similar 'drug tax stamps' only last year.
