The History of Tax Practices: Taxation and End of the Romans
W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
Mithridates the Great ruled a tiny nation near what is currently known as Turkey. He had an extraordinary power to arouse rebellion among unhappy taxpayers. In 88 BC he organized a civil war fighting Roman rule. By granting 5 years of tax immunity to each city that followed his rebellion, he gathered substantial support.
The Roman Senate sprang into action and told General Sulla to muster an army and restore Roman authority in the east. Sulla was victorious in squelching the rebels, but only following a four year struggle. When the revolt was squashed, Sulla ordered the leaders of the disgruntled cities to meet him at Ephesus. There the citizens were to remit 5 years of back taxes and pay the general for his war debt.
To enforce this tax, Sulla established “special agents.” These special agents had the ability to scourge and kill, which was plenty to cause any taxpayer cooperative. Up until this period there were self-assessment tax collectors, corporate tax collecting, army tax collectors and regular government tax collectors. However, these newly instituted “special agents” were highly skilled specialists with the arrogance of bureaucrats and the power of military executioners. Taxpayers lost all inclination to evade.
Special Agents have been instituted several times in the past, persisting into modern times as “fiscal police” or simply “special agents”, using the name initially instituted by Sulla over 2000 years past. As the practice of Sulla’s special agents was put in to place in other nations, soldiers came to understand that the rich spoils of war came from their commander, not the Roman Senate. Roman generals came back to Rome with the unwavering loyalty of their soldiers. Huge civil wars broke out as rival armies fought. With these moderately private armies, the institution of a military dictator was inescapable. So, the Roman Republic dissolved. Royalty, dictators, and generals would now rule for the next two thousand years. Democracies and republics would not play a dominant role in civilization again until the 1800s.
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