8,000 Years of Weird and Wonderful Taxes by Darren Gleeson

'8,000 Years of Weird and Wonderful Taxes' takes a journey through history as we shed light on unusual and different taxes through the ages. We start with the beginning of taxation in 6,000 BC with the Bala tax and move through to the current day Social media taxes. Governments levy taxes for two reasons: to raise revenue to fund their spending or to change citizens' behaviours (by either rewarding or punishing the behaviours they want to change). We look at the effect on society of the 420 BC - Sex tax, 870 - Breast tax, 1535 – Beard tax, and the 1807 – Killing of squirrels tax, to name a few. Some historical taxes will make us question the legislators' sanity (e.g. the 1800 – Tax on eye colour), while others were damaging to our health (such as the 2009 – Pro-cigarette smoking tax). Like them or loathe them, there is no doubt taxes have shaped history and the world we live in today.