Ways To Get Out Of Debt

The Lesson in Taxation, Section Eight: Taxation and The Boston Tea Party

January 4th, 2010

W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…

Ah…. finally an event in history obviously concerning oppressive taxes. Was the Boston Tea Party a protest against the British tax on tea, as we were all taught? No, not one bit. The colonies had already been boycotting English tea for 5 years prior to the Boston Tea Party! They had instead smuggled in Dutch tea and were quite prosperous. There was tea for everyone and no British tea tax paid. Obviously, the British didn’t like this boycott. So, the British forgot the duties back home. The Parliament allowed British tea merchants to avoid the import tax of shipping the tea into England and then transfer the money saved along to the colonies as they sent the tea over and then 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 would the colonists take the cheaper British tea even though it had a tax? Yes. So much so that the result was loyal British merchants were getting all the business and the taxes were still being given to England. However, the colonists did not care about the tax that much; they ended up getting cheaper tea. However, the non-British MERCHANTS did not enjoy this process. The British merchants, with the assistance of England, had basically created a monopoly on tea sales. The native merchants thought 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 Natives, boarded a vessel containing British tea and tossed it into the water. Was this a crowning moment in American tax protest? Nope. The Boston Tea Party was viewed as the senseless destruction of private property at a time when private property was viewed as very important. This event was extremely looked down upon and did not sit well with the colonists. Ben Franklin was abhorred and demanded that complete repayment would be paid immediately to the owners of the tea. Anyway, it escalated into war.

However, the colonies would soon learn that fleets of war vessels, battalions of soldiers, and cannons were a lot more terrifying than a couple tax collectors. The ironic thing is, America won the war, mostly due to the fact that England found it too expensive to wage war so far from England. BUT after the war, America faced astounding debts and taxes, and even with representation they were enormous.

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/