Task 4 You are going to read a text about the history of taxes. What is the message of the text?
To claim that taxes and taxation always have been unpopular is to state the obvious. Every American schoolchild learns about the Stamp Act of 1765 and how widespread resentment against "taxation without representation" precipitated the American Revolution. Few are aware of the fact that taxation with representation was just as unpopular: the Articles of Confederation of 1781 deprived the central government of the power of taxation. When a new constitution empowered Congress in 1791 to tax whiskey and other products, the Whiskey Rebellion ensued, nearly toppling the new government.
Taxation is about power, a subject that has excited much controversy throughout history. The Magna Carta of 1215, considered a watershed in the evolution of representative government, came about because of an English king's arbitrary imposition of taxes, without the consent of those being taxed. The issue was not about taxes themselves, but how they were being imposed. From then on, English rulers were deprived of the "power of the purse," which, for the most part, shifted to the taxpayers as represented by Parliament.
The concept of consent endured, elevated by English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) into a constitutional principle. Locke maintained that government existed in order to protect liberty and the right of property; even so, it had no inherent right to tax without consent. Hence, since the Magna Carta the matter of taxation continued to buttress representative government. In 1689, the English "Bill of Rights" explicitly guaranteed the right of taxation only to parliament. This was a dramatic departure in the 5,000-year history of taxation.
Another significant change has been the shared responsibility of all segments of society in the payment of taxes. In the United States, everybody from George Washington to the humble distiller of whiskey paid taxes. In medieval Europe and Russia, those least able to pay carried most or all of the tax burden. Taxes were a social stigma. This changed with the evolution of the concept of taxation with representation, and its corollary: the responsibility of all to pay. In the early years of the American republic, so firmly entrenched was the idea that those who paid were those who ruled that the payment of property taxes (the only form of personal, individual tax in those days) became a more important voting criterion than mere citizenship.
Finally, the concept that those who are most able to afford to pay tax should pay the most is perhaps the most recent evolution in the history of taxation. It is nevertheless limited to the income tax, which in itself is the embodiment of the concept of everyone's responsibility to shoulder the tax burden.
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Despite these changes over time, taxation is as old as recorded history. Today as in ancient times, all taxes fall into broad categories: direct and indirect, internal and external. A direct tax is one that a person pays directly, as with income tax. An indirect tax is one that is usually figured into the price of a product, with the purchaser often unaware of its existence. External taxes usually refer to tariffs, or taxes on imports, including food products. Internal taxes are those, such as excise taxes or sales taxes, added on to the price of a product produced or grown in this country (many foods are exempt from sales taxes).
Once the principle of taxation with representation was firmly established in the Constitution, federal, state, and local taxes proliferated steadily in the United States. This was not only in the number and in types of taxes, but also in the numbers of those who paid them. Moreover, taxes that were meant to be temporaryended up becoming permanent.
That taxes are as unpopular as ever, despite their proliferation in the 20th century, is beyond dispute. Beginning in the late 1970s, promises to lessen individual and corporate tax burdens provided the political fuel for conservative candidates, who met with unprecedented success throughout the 1980s. By the mid-1990s candidates representing all points of the political spectrum found that opposition to taxation had become a prerequisite to election. Opposition to federal taxation aroused particular fervor, bringing the continued existence of the Internal Revenue Service into question within the federal legislature. While proposals to abolish the IRS were never seriously debated, the House of Representatives did hold public hearings on the IR Sand its practices in the spring of 1998, and promised to reform the service in due time. In any event, Americans today sacrifice as much as, and sometimes more than, one-third of their income to taxes. How this came to be is the story of taxation in America.
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There are roughly two periods of taxation in the United States: post 1913, which saw the adoption of the income tax (first by the federal government, then by the states) and the birth of Social Security, Medicare, and the state sales tax; and the pre-1913 years, which is largely the story of the poll, property, tariff, and other non-income taxes.
Comprehension
Task 4 Complete the following sentences with the information from the text above.
1. When a new constitution empowered Congress in 1791 to tax whiskey and other products, the Whiskey Rebellion….
2. The Magna Carta of 1215 came about because of …
3. …government existed in order to protect liberty and the right of property…
4. In medieval Europe and Russia, those least able to pay ….
5. Those who paid were those who …
6. It is nevertheless limited to the income tax, which in itself is the embodiment of ….
7. The taxes are as unpopular as ever, despite their proliferation in the 20th century because …
8. Once the principle of taxation with representation was firmly established in the Constitution…
9. Moreover, taxes that were meant to be temporary…
Task 5 Note down:
The two broad categories taxes are divided into. Give examples.
1…. … …
2…. … …
The two periods of taxation in the USA. Give examples.
1…. … …
2…. … …
VOCABULARY
Collocations
Task 6 Find phrases in the text “Tax History” which mean the same as the following:
1. accelerated
2. being levied
3. raised by
4. directly
5. stain, brand
6. rooted, strengthened
7. free, released
8. spread, multiplied
9. precondition
10. enthusiasm, zeal
11. to revoke, eliminate
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