The Bible records that Jesus offered his views on a tax matter, and converted a prominent taxman. In its early days taxation did not always involve handing over money. The ancient Chinese paid with pressed tea, and Jivaro tribesmen in the Amazon region stumped up shrunken heads. As the price of their citizenship, ancient Greeks and Romans could be called on to serve as soldiers, and had to supply their own weapons—a practice that was still going strong in feudal Europe.

The other early source of tax revenue was trade, with tolls and customs duties being collected from travelling merchants. The big advantage of these taxes was that they fell mostly on visitors rather than residents. One of the earliest taxes imposed by England’s Parliament, in the 13th century, was "tonnage and poundage" on wine, wool and leather, targeted at Italian merchants. Sometimes rulers went a little over the top. Excessive taxation was one reason why King Charles I of England lost his head. Many of those guillotined during the French Revolution of 1789 were much-resented private tax collectors.

The first income tax was levied in 1797 by the Dutch Batavian Republic. Britain followed suit in 1799, and Prussia in 1808. Like most new taxes, these imposts were first introduced as temporary measures to finance war efforts. After the European powers had made peace in Vienna in 1815, Henry Addington, the British prime minister of the day, swore that an income tax would never be imposed again. But in 1842 the British government revived the tax.