A brief history of tax

摘要

"No taxation without repre-sentation." The slogan of the American revolution has long been a rallying cry for taxpayers and tax evaders alike—though not always with such dramatic consequences. Arguably, the struggle to tax people in ways they find acceptable has been the main force shaping the modern nation-state. But are tax policies designed when the nation-state was all-powerful still appropriate now that globalisation, spurred on by the Internet, is rapidly eroding national borders?