Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse of several empires, including the Egyptian, Roman, Spanish, and Aztec.
Many rebellions and revolutions have been prompted by resentment of taxation or had tax refusal as a component. Examples of historic events that originated as tax revolts include the Magna Carta, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution.
This page is a partial list of global tax revolts and tax resistance actions that have come to the attention of Wikipedia's editors. This includes actions in which a person or people refused to pay a tax of some sort, either through passive resistance or by actively obstructing the tax collector or collecting authorities, and actions in which people boycotted some taxed good or activity or engaged in a strike to reduce or eliminate the tax due.
Examples
Before 1500 A.D.
Jewish Zealots, 1st century A.D.
In the 1st century AD, Jewish Zealots in Judaea resisted the poll tax instituted by the Roman Empire. Jesus was accused of promoting tax resistance prior to his torture and execution ("We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ a King" – Luke 23:2). After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, Jews, particularly those exiled to Egypt, refused to pay the still-extant "temple tax" to Rome (which it was using to maintain pagan temples); Rome responded by destroying Jewish temples.
Limoges, 578 In 578 AD residents of Limoges, encouraged by the local clergy, rioted, destroying tax-collecting paraphernalia and threatening the assessor. The government responded harshly, with punishments including torture and crucifixion, though Queen Fredegund later was said to have repented and rescinded the tax.
Peace and Truce of God, 1027
In councils organized by the Peace and Truce of God movement, Christian clergy resisted the exaction of taxes against church property by warlords.
Danegeld, 1041 In 1041, residents of Worcester rebelled against the Danegeld being collected by King Harthacnut, and killed two of his tax collectors. Harthacnut responded by burning Worcester to the ground.
Constantinople, 1197
When Alexios III Angelos tried to tax residents of Constantinople to come up with money to pay protection money to Henry VI, the people of Constantinople refused to pay, and Alexios was reduced to trying to collect the sum by stripping the ornaments from old tombs.
Florence, 1289 A war tax instituted by the Florentine seigniory in 1288 and increased in 1289 led to mass tax resistance that forced the government to abandon the tax.
Clericis laicos, 1296
In 1296, Pope Boniface VIII issued the clericis laicos, which prohibited secular governments from taxing churches without the permission of the Pope, and prohibited church officials from paying such taxes. Archbishop Robert Winchelsey used this as the basis for his refusal to pay taxes to Edward I of England, and urged the clergy under his direction to do likewise.
Norman anti-tax riots, 1348–51 In Normandy in June 1348, tax resisters attacked the tax collectors of King Philip VI, "pillaging and burning their houses." In August 1351, citizens of Rouen rioted, "destroying 'the counters, boxes, and other objects necessary to make and operate' collection of" a new tax instituted by John II. In 1355, Geoffroy of Harcourt urged residents of Rouen to refuse to pay the hearth tax and allied with Charles the Bad against John II's taxes.
Wat Tyler's rebellion, 1381
In 1381 the Peasant's Revolt occurred in England, when Wat Tyler led an uprising over a new poll tax. Tyler marched an army of tens of thousands of peasants from Kent to Canterbury, then to London, beheaded the archbishop, and exacted radical concessions from King Richard II. During the negotiations, Tyler was killed by officers of the King and was publicly beheaded, and Richard II retracted all of the concessions that he had previously made.
French aides uprisings, 1381
In 1381 there was widespread tax rebellion in France.
In Rouen workers in the textile trade gathered in the Old Market, chose one of their own to represent the king, and had this mock king sign acts abolishing the aides. In Paris the collectors′ threat to seize a greengrocer's still on the Right Bank roused local residents to assemble, shout "Down with taxes!" and chase off the tax collectors.... The rebellion then spread to Caen and other towns in Normandy and to towns in Picardy, where opposition was especially virulent in Amiens. It moved through Orleans and on to Sens, finally reaching Lyons...
Bundschuh movement
The Bundschuh movement was in part a tax resistance movement that encouraged its followers to stop paying tithes to the Catholic Church and taxes. In France, a tithe-payer strike spread from 1529 to 1560 among both Catholics and Protestants.
Flemish revolt against Maximilian of Austria, 1488
The guilds of Bruges (supported by the other Flemish cities) held later emperor Maximilian captive when he heavily disturbed the economy by raising taxes and seigniorage to wage war. They negotiated better terms and then released him. He then reneged on the agreement and took his armies back to Bruges in revenge. Bruges lost its administrative functions to the city of Ghent.
16th century
Revolt of the Comuneros, 1520 In Spain, the people of Salamanca in 1520 refused to pay any taxes because of their belief that Charles I was sending the tax money to the Netherlands. They were joined by other towns, which eventually formed the Revolt of the Comuneros.
Amicable Grant revolt in England, 1525 Under the leadership of his chief minister Thomas Wolsey, England's King Henry VIII repeatedly raised taxes and imposed forced loans in the 1520s to pay for his large-scale wars in Europe. Finally the call for an "Amicable Grant" of non-repayable loans in 1525 went too far. Parliament had not voted it, and the English landed and financial elites refused to pay. Passive resistance was widespread, there was an attempted revolt in Suffolk and England was on the verge of violent resistance when the program was hurriedly ended. Lack of money ended Henry's plans for an invasion of France, and he took England out of the war with the Treaty of the More on 30 August 1525.
German Peasants′ War, 1524–25 The German Peasants' War of 1524–25 was in part a tax resistance campaign. The rebels vowed to set their own tithes, and said:
The small tithes, whether ecclesiastical or lay, we will not pay at all, for the Lord God created cattle for the free use of man. We will not, therefore, pay farther an unseemly tithe which is of man's invention.... Henceforth no one shall have to pay death taxes, whether small or large.
Revolt of Ghent, 1539 The Revolt of Ghent began when the city magistrates refused to pay taxes demanded by Charles V for his war with France.
Hutterites In the 16th century, Hutterites refused to pay taxes for war or capital punishment. One wrote:
For war, killing, and bloodshed (where it is demanded especially for that) we give nothing, but not out of wickedness or arbitrariness, but out of the fear of God () that we may not be partakers in strange sins.
Another wrote:
[When] the government requires of us what is contrary to our faith and conscience—as swearing oaths and paying hangman's dues or taxes for war—then we do not obey its command.
Gabelle revolts, 1542, 1548 Residents of La Rochelle rebelled against the gabelle, or salt tax, in 1542. "[A]rmed rebels thwarted the tax-collecting efforts of two successive visitations of royal commissioners sent out to enforce the [gabelle] edicts." A second revolt centered in Guyenne in 1548 was more organized, widespread, and violent; and was violently suppressed. Also in August 1548, there were violent revolts against the gabelle in Bordeaux in which tax collectors were killed and their homes burnt. The French central government sent in thousands of troops who terrorized the occupants, imposed martial law, and enforced humiliating terms; however, "Amazingly, in the long run, the rebellion did achieve its aim. Unnerved by the riots, Henri II decided not to enforce the salt tax."
Tariff resistance in Holland, 1543–49 Merchants in Holland successfully resisted a variety of export duties imposed by the Holy Roman Empire via Mary of Hungary.
Tax strikes in France, 1579–80 In Romans-sur-Isère and other parts of Dauphiné, anti-tax leagues formed, which grew into a powerful rebellion that was crushed in the wake of the ambush and murder of many of the rebel leaders by vigilantes during the Carnival of 1580.
The Revolt Against the Tribute, Philippines, 1589 In 1589, the provinces of Cagayán, Ilocos Norte, and Ilocos Sur rebelled against unjust Spanish colonial taxes and abusive tax collectors in what became known as the "Revolt Against the Tribute," the "Dingrás Revolt," or the "Ilocos Norte Revolt."
Rappenkrieg, 1591–94 In a three-year-long tax refusal campaign called the Rappenkrieg or "farthing war," the residents of Basel, Switzerland refused to pay a tax destined for the bishop.
Croquants, 1593–95
Peasant rebels in southwestern France called "croquants" included "refusal to pay tithes, tailles, and rents... and resistance to tax collectors and their agents." A second rebellion in Vivarais at the same time also centered on refusal to pay the taille.
Sales tax resistance in France, 1597 A number of towns in France, notably Poitiers, resisted the imposition of a new sales tax by Henry IV in 1597. The King at first stubbornly enforced the tax by force, but eventually decided the expense and fuss was not worth the income and rescinded the tax.
Jelali revolts The Jelali revolts were typically inspired by taxes or the action of tax collectors, and included tax resistance strategies, including "The Great Flight"—a sort of mass emigration by peasants from their land to avoid taxes.
17th century
Bolotnikov rebellion, 1606 During the Bolotnikov rebellion, tribes in western Siberia began refusing to pay taxes to the central government.
Brussels, 1619 In the city of Brussels, then part of the Duchy of Brabant in the Habsburg Netherlands, there was a tax strike in 1619. When the States of Brabant (composed of representatives of the clergy, the nobility, and the four cities Leuven, Brussels, Antwerp and 's-Hertogenbosch) met to renew the standard sales tax on the "four species of consumption" (beer, wine, bread and meat), the guilds of the city of Brussels instructed their representatives not to vote the taxes through until their grievances had been addressed. As the constitutional principle was that taxes had to be passed by "full consent", this meant the taxes could not legally be collected. After two months of constitutional impasse and fruitless negotiations (May–June) the government ordered the taxes to be collected notwithstanding. The guilds made this impossible, and their defiance of the government led to a military occupation of the city in September 1619. The central authorities then revised the civic constitution to limit the power of the guilds to filibuster the States of Brabant. The deans of six of the guilds, and their legal counsel, were served with sentences of lifelong banishment from the Low Countries.
English Civil War In 1627, John Hampden was imprisoned for his opposition to the loan Charles I has authorised without the approval of Parliament, and he also refused to pay ship money to the Royal Navy. The attempts to imprison resisters like Hampden led to the English Civil War.