W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
Ah…. now we have a historical event clearly concerning oppressive taxes. Was the Boston Tea Party a protest concerning the British taxation on tea, as we were all taught? No, not one bit. The colonies had already been boycotting English tea for 5 years before to the Boston Tea Party! Instead, they smuggled in Dutch tea and were quite prosperous. There was tea for anyone who wanted it and no British tea tax paid. Obviously, the British didn’t like the boycott. So, the British bypassed the duties at home. The Parliament told British tea sellers to disregard the import tax of shipping the tea into England and then pass the savings along to the colonies when they shipped the tea over and thereby sold British tea at a price that was lower than the smuggled Dutch tea. If you are feeling the pressure with today’s taxes, call a CPA for Tax Preparation in Raleigh, NC for all your tax-related needs!
But what people would sell this British tea?
They sold it with the loyal British merchants in the colonies. But will the colonists buy the cheaper British tea even though it had a tax? Yes. They bought so much that what ended up happening was loyal British merchants were getting all the business and a taxes were still being given to England. However, the colonists did not care about the tax that much; they still were getting more inexpensive tea. BUT, the non-British MERCHANTS didn’t like the process. The British merchants, gaining the assistance of England, had basically created a monopoly on tea sales. The native merchants feared it was only a matter of time before more British enterprises would be established with the same mechanism and they would be forced out of business. Go here if you want help with a modern-day Tax Return in Raleigh, NC.
So, a group of MERCHANTS dressed up as Indians, boarded a ship containing British tea and tossed it into the harbor. Was this a crowning peak in American tax protest? Not at all. The Boston Tea Party was viewed as the wanton destruction of private property at a time when private property was viewed as very important. The event was extremely grave and didn’t sit well with the colonies. Ben Franklin was abhorred and demanded that full repayment would be given at once to the owners of the tea. However, it escalated into war.
However, the colonies would quickly find that fleets of war vessels, battalions of soldiers, and cannons were much scarier than a few tax collectors. The funny part is, America did not lose the war, primarily because England realized it was too expensive to wage war so far from home. BUT after the war, America faced huge debts and taxes, and even with representation they were going to be huge.
Keep an eye out for W. Marc Gilfillan’s next chapter in his History of Taxes series: Taxes and Slavery and the Civil War.
http://www.marccpa.com/