Discover 25 Fun Facts That Make Taxes Interesting

Now that tax season has officially begun, we thought it would be fun to start out the season with some fun tax facts. Enjoy!

1. Did you know that in the U.K, everyone under the age of 75 years old must pay a tv license fee?
2. Got a beard? During Peter the Great’s time…He taxed men for having beards.
3. Costs for relocating your pet can be written off if you’re relocating for job reasons.
4. In the middle ages, soap was highly taxed…so we can only imagine what the average Joe smelled like…
5. In 2010, General Electric made over $4 billion in U.S. profits. It paid $0 in taxes.
6. Drug dealers beware…. If the income from illegal drugs is not included in your taxes on Form 1040, line 21 or on schedule C-EZ 1040; jail time will be extended longer for tax evasion.
7. In Maryland, each time you flush the toilet…you’re paying taxes on it. The average person pays $60 per year.
8. Texas has a “pole tax” which is a tax on strip clubs, peep shows, and nude dancing. The revenue from the tax goes to sexual assault victims and health insurance for the poor.
9. Did you know that in Texas…Belt buckles are taxed an additional 6.25 percent???
10. I guess because we get hit with the belt buckle tax, they have to cut us some slack somewhere. In Texas cowboy boots are exempt from sales tax. Hiking books are not.
11. The U.S. Civil War was not about slavery but mainly about taxation.
12. WWII led to the creation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which later became the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS is the world’s largest accounting and tax-collection organization.
13. Approximately 90% of people who employ housekeepers and babysitters cheat on their taxes.
14. If someone reports their company for tax evasion in the U.S., he or she will receive 30% of the amount collected.
15. The federal tax code was 400 pages in 1913. In 2010 it was 70,000 pages. You can only imagine how long it is now after the recent tax bill…
16. There is no known civilization that did not tax. Even the very first known civilization, the Sumerians, recorded their tax history on clay cones.
17. Roman emperor Vespasian placed a tax on urine in the 1st century A.D. Urine at that time was collected and used as a source of ammonia for tanning hides and laundering garments.
18. The most famous protest of taxation by the American colonies was the Boston Tea Party. On December 16, 1773, colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act and other oppressive tax measures. They argued there should be no “taxation without representation.”
19. Everyone who earns a paycheck pays a federal income tax. Forty-three of the 50 states charge their citizens an income tax. The seven states that do not have a state income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
20. In 1691, England taxed the number of windows on a house. Consequently, houses began to be built with very few windows or people would close up existing windows. When people began to suffer health problems from lack of windows/air, the tax was finally repealed in 1851.
21. When Americans started paying annual federal income tax in 1913, they would save money in anticipation of paying a lump sum to the federal government. It wasn’t until WWII, when the government needed a more consistent stream of income to fund the war, that taxes started being withheld from paychecks.
22. Albert Einstein once said: “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” In case you are curious… There are more than 480 tax forms on the IRS website.
23. In 2011, the IRS collected over $2.4 trillion from around 234 million tax returns (which included corporate, individual, and employment income tax returns). The IRS also provided approximately $416 billion in refunds.
24. Cortez was able to defeat Montezuma largely because he incited a tax revolt among the peasants.
25. If you want to save more money on your taxes, call Molen & Associates at 281-440-6279.

Carrolina Kizzee
Director of First Impressions (Receptionist)

“7 Crazy Taxes from the U.S. and Abroad.” TurboTax. 2012. Accessed: March 22, 2013.

Adams, Charles. For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization. New York, NY: Madison Books, 1993.

La Bella, Laura. How Taxation Works. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2011.

“Strange & Unusual Taxes throughout history from around the World.” eFile. Accessed March 22, 2013.

“The Joy of Tax.” The Economist. April 8, 2010. Accessed: March 22, 2013.

“Unusual Tax Breaks, Tax Deductions, and Tax Exemptions.” eFile. Accessed March 22, 2013. Accessed: March 22, 2013.