Financial Advice Blog

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 concerning the British taxation on tea, as we were told? No, not one bit. The colonies had continuously been boycotting English tea for 5 years before to the Boston Tea Party! Instead, they smuggled in Dutch tea and were quite prosperous. There was tea for anyone who wanted it and no British tea tax paid. Naturally, the British didn’t like the boycott. So, the British bypassed the duties at home. The Parliament allowed British tea merchants to avoid the import tax of getting the tea into England and then pass the savings along to the colonies when they sent the tea over and thereby sold British tea at a price lower than the Dutch smuggled tea. If you’re 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 did it through loyal British merchants located in the colonies. But would the colonists buy the cheaper British tea with an included tax? Yes. They bought so much that what ended up happening was loyal British merchants got all the business and a tax was still be paid to England. However, the colonists didn’t mind the tax very much; they still were receiving cheaper tea. BUT, the non-British MERCHANTS didn’t enjoy this gig. The British merchants, gaining the help from England, had basically created a monopoly on tea sales. The colonial merchants feared it would only be a matter of time before many 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 collection of MERCHANTS who appeared to be Natives, boarded a ship containing British tea and dumped it into the water. Was this a crowning moment in American tax protest? No, it was not. The Boston Tea Party was viewed as the wanton destruction of private property at a period when private property was viewed as very important. The Boston Tea Party was extremely grave and did not sit well with the colonies. Ben Franklin was abhorred and demanded that full repayment would be paid at once to the owners of the tea. However, it escalated into war.

However, the colonists would quickly learn that masses of warships, battalions of soldiers, and cannons were much scarier than a few tax collectors. The funny thing is, America did not lose the war, primarily because England realized it was too expensive to fund war so far from England. BUT after the war, America faced astounding debts and taxes, and even with representation they were going to be huge.

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/

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