Raleigh NC Accountant

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

Ah…. now we have an event in history obviously about oppressive taxation. Was the Boston Tea Party a protest against the British taxation on tea, as we were told? No, not one bit. The colonies had already been boycotting English tea for five years before to the Boston Tea Party! They had instead smuggled in Dutch tea and were quite prosperous. There was tea for anyone who wanted it and no British tea tax paid. Obviously, the British didn’t like the boycott. So, the British bypassed the duties back home. The Parliament told British tea sellers to disregard the import tax of shipping the tea into England and then pass the savings along to the colonies when they sent the tea over and then sold British tea at a price lower than the Dutch smuggled 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 did it through loyal British merchants in the colonies. But would the colonists buy the cheaper British tea even though it included a tax? Yes. So much so that what ended up happening was loyal British merchants were getting all the business and a tax was still be paid to England. Obviously the colonists didn’t mind the tax that much; they still were receiving more inexpensive tea. However, the non-British MERCHANTS did not enjoy this gig. The British merchants, gaining the help from England, had essentially established a monopoly on tea sales. The colonial merchants feared it was only a matter of time before many monopolies 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, walked on a vessel containing British tea and dumped it into the harbor. Was this a shining peak in American tax protest? Nope. The Boston Tea Party was viewed as the wanton destruction of private property at a period when private property was highly regarded. The Boston Tea Party was very grave and didn’t sit well with the colonies. Ben Franklin was abhorred and told the merchants that complete restitution would be paid immediately to the owners of the tea. However, it turned into war.

However, the colonists would soon find that masses of war vessels, battalions of redcoats, and cannons were a lot more terrifying than a few tax collectors. The ironic part is, America didn’t lose the war, primarily because England realized it was too expensive to fund war so far from England. BUT after the war, America faced huge 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/