California Drinking Water Tax

[BIAD]

Mystic Wanderer Wrote:

Taxing water is WRONG!  It was here on Earth to sustain life long before the Elites came along. 
Who died and made them gods of man?    

Oh don't feel too sorry for these guys, Mystic... over here in the UK, we had taxes that were just as stupid!

The Window Tax:
The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social,
cultural, and architectural force in England, France, Ireland and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries.

To avoid the tax some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces (ready to be
glazed or reglazed at a later date). In England and Wales it was introduced in 1696 and was repealed in
1851, 156 years after first being introduced.

France (established 1798, repealed 1926) and Scotland both had window taxes for similar reasons.

The Brick Tax:
The brick tax was a property tax introduced in Great Britain in 1784, during the reign of King George III, to help
pay for the wars in the American Colonies.

Bricks were initially taxed at 4s per thousand. To mitigate the effect of the tax, manufacturers began to increase
the size of their bricks, up to a maximum of 11 inches × 5 inches ×  3 1⁄2 inches (280 mm × 125 mm × 80 mm).

In response, the government introduced a maximum volume for a brick, at 150 cubic inches (2,500 cm3).
The level of taxation was increased in 1794, 1797, and 1805, peaking at 5s 10d per thousand bricks.

The Wallpaper Tax:
The wallpaper tax was a property tax introduced in Great Britain in 1712, during the reign of Queen Anne.
Patterned, printed, or painted wallpaper was initially taxed at 1d per square yard, rising to 1shilling (equivalent
to $4.22 as of 2015),] by 1809.

The tax was bypassed by purchasing untaxed plain paper and having it hand stenciled.
The tax was abolished in 1836.

The Poll Tax:
The Poll Tax, was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of domestic rates in Scotland from 1989,
prior to its introduction in England and Wales from 1990.

('Rates' were used to finance municipal services such as refuse collection, road-cleaning, schools, street
lighting and generally societal up-keep. The rate a household paid was determined on the value of the property
of that household.)

Water Rates are seperate.

The introduced Poll Tax provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the local
authority. The charge was replaced by Council Tax in 1993, two years after its abolition was announced.

(We had riots and imprisonments over this one!)

As of this writing I personally pay around $1,677.65 per annum and the services -just like in many towns
and cities around the UK, have dwindled.

(No kidding, this one was real!)

The Hat Tax:
The hat tax was a tax levied by the British Government from 1784 to 1811 on men's hats.
The tax was introduced during the first ministry of Pitt the Younger and was designed to be a simple way of
raising revenue for the government in a rough accordance with each person's relative wealth.

It was supposed that the rich would have a large number of expensive hats, whereas the poor might have
one cheap hat or none at all.
The hat tax required hat retailers to buy a licence and to display the sign Dealer in Hats by Retail.