Creative taxes
Quite often, some might even say too often, I complain here about taxes - their existence, the complex tax code and the way the government use them. I pointed in the past to the fact that we use to fund a war that ended hundred years ago, or that some of our phone bills included "Football District Tax" and "Baseball District Tax".
But today I found out that our taxes aren’t as peculiar as some old taxes such as:
URINE TAX
Imposed by the Roman emperor Nero, around A.D. 60. Why urine? The contents of public toilets were collected by tanners and laundry workers for the ammonia, which was used for curing leather and bleaching togas. Nero slapped a fee on the collectors (not the producers) and it was such a money-raiser that Nero’s successor, Vespasian, continued the tax. When his son, Titus, complained about the gross nature of the tax, Vespasian is reputed to have held up a gold coin and said, “Non olet” (“This doesn’t stink”).
SOUL TAX
Peter the Great, czar of Russia, imposed a tax on souls in 1718…meaning everybody had to pay it (it’s similar to a head tax or a poll tax). Peter was antireligious (he was an avid fan of Voltaire and other secular humanist philosophers), but agreeing with him didn’t excuse anyone from paying the tax—if you didn’t believe humans had a soul, you still had to pay a “religious dissenters” tax. Peter also taxed beards, beehives, horse collars, hats, boots, basements, chimneys, food, clothing, all males, as well as birth, marriage, and even burial.
I wouldn’t be surprise if this list will give ideas to some of our legislators… 
(via the Club for Growth)
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