List of historical acts of tax resistance
Wikimedia list article
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.
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