W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
Finally moving away from the Greeks, we finally are at the Roman Empire. Scholars usually refer to Roman tax policy as “more or less legal stealing” and Roman tax men as “a band of thugs.” But Roman tax law wasn’t always bad. There was a two hundred year period at the peak of the Roman Empire when taxation was moderate. Actually, all kinds of tax, as well as no taxes, marked the Roman …

W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
The island of Rhodes: a linking to Rome and Greece. Any shipping from the east halted for supplies or to change cargo at Rhodes. The harbor at the city, similar to every other harbor, had a tax on everything – 2%. Rhodes was prosperous and was fabulously wealthy in the banking and commerce industries specifically. The wealthy men erected a hundred-foot-tall bronze colossus of Apollo near the entrance to the harbor. It named …

W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
The Rosetta Stone, discovered by Napoleon, was perhaps the most helpful Egyptian archaeological find to date. The Stone had duplicated text in 3 different languages: hieroglyphics, demotic (also called Egyptian script) and Greek. Using the Greek version, archaeologists could decipher the Egyptian script and subsequently the pictographs. However, the query is sustained: Egyptians had paper, called papyrus, so why was the writing carved into stone? Also, why three languages? And why Greek?
The Stone …

W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
Ancient Egypt was not a land of terrible oppressors and oppressed slaves – that’s simply the impression we get from the story of Exodus, which came at a time of chaos in Egypt. Modern translations of hieroglyphics tell a tale of life in ancient Egypt was usually bountiful and relatively at peace. The land was rich, men and women were equal and life was good for most. But, there were tax collectors, as …