The Lesson in Tax Practices, Chapter 8: Taxation and The Boston Tea Party
W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
Ah…. finally an event in history clearly about abusive taxes. Was the Boston Tea Party a protest concerning the British tax on tea, as we were told? No, not at all. The colonies had already been boycotting English tea for 5 years before to the Boston Tea Party! They had actually smuggled in Dutch tea and were doing quite well. There was tea for anyone who wanted it and no British tea tax paid. Naturally, the British didn’t like this boycott. So, the British forgot the duties at home. The Parliament told British tea merchants to avoid the import tax of shipping the tea to England and then transfer the savings along to the colonies when they sent the tea over and then sold British tea at a price that was lower than the smuggled Dutch tea. If you’re feeling the pressure with today’s taxes, call a CPA for Tax Preparation in Raleigh, NC for all your tax-related needs!
But who would sell this British tea?
They sold it through loyal British merchants in the colonies. But will the colonists take the cheaper British tea with an included tax? Yes. They bought so much that what ended up happening was loyal British merchants were getting all the business and the taxes were still being paid to England. However, the colonists did not care about the tax very much; they ended up getting more inexpensive tea. However, the non-British MERCHANTS did not like this process. The British merchants, gaining the assistance of England, had essentially created a monopoly on tea sales. The colony merchants feared it would only be a matter of time before additional monopolies would be created with an identical 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 Natives, boarded a ship loaded with British tea and dumped it into the harbor. Was this a crowning moment in American tax protest? Not at all. The Boston Tea Party was looked at as the wanton desecration of private property at a period when private property was viewed as very important. This event was very grave and didn’t sit well with the colonies. Ben Franklin was shocked and demanded that full restitution would be paid immediately to the owners of the tea. However, it turned into war.
However, the colonists would soon realize that masses of war vessels, legions of soldiers, and cannons were much scarier than a few tax collectors. The ironic part is, America won the war, primarily because England realized it was too expensive to fund war so far from England. BUT after the war, America had 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/
Tags: accountant, bookkeeping, cpa, income tax, marc gilfillan, NC, raleigh, tax, tax preparation, tax return, taxes