A Journey into the World History of Taxes: Exploring Identity and Consent

Un day, I suddenly realized that there was still an unexplored area of ​​my identity: my “taxpayer” part. Insofar as the tax is the civic duty par excellence, this vagueness and this misunderstanding seemed regrettable to me. And the sign of too much levity: let’s not forget, in fact, that at the center of the tax system is the question of consent. In the same way that Snow White didn’t really consent to the prince before he kissed her, I don’t remember ever saying that I was willing to pay taxes. At least not clearly. Have I been the victim of tax abuse?

I thought for a moment of getting into a big fight that could have given rise, in the long term, to a tax “wokism”. However, I found it difficult to accept the fact of becoming the high priestess of a kind of right-wing progressivism. In addition, my first research made me realize that it was going to take a lot of work if I wanted to be credible. In particular to avoid rookie mistakes, such as confusing consent to tax (sociological and individual) and consent to tax (politics).

Nevertheless, I owe to this moment of enthusiasm to have read, before my militant journey was interrupted, theWorld tax history (Pasts composed, 448 pages, 25 euros), by Eric Anceau and Jean-Luc Bordron.

Simplification shocks

This allowed me, first of all, to measure the extent to which the tax education of French schoolchildren leaves something to be desired. Why do we no longer read, in school textbooks, words as exciting as those of Paul Bert in his textbook civic education at school (Picard-Bernheim, 1882) : “Only the savages do not pay taxes: so they go naked, sleep in the open air, are half stupid, eat when they can, and the strongest knocks the others down, without worrying about the claims » ? This is enough to make the taxpayer understand that he is not only a civic hero, but also a beacon of civilization (I agree!).

And then, how not to be moved by a long story of which we become more and more the hero every day? My taxpayer self inherits great battles (from the Magna Carta, this pact concluded in 1215 around financial issues in particular between the King of England John Without Land and the barons in revolt, to the verified taxpayer’s charter of 1975). It is thanks to them that I am no longer a subject but an actor in my tax life.

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