Tea tax
The tea tax is a taxation of tea and is usually counted among the consumption taxes and the trivial taxes . It was raised in many countries in the 18th century as part of a mercantilist trade policy in order to reduce the import of tea from China and to save foreign currency . A delimitation of import duties is historically difficult in countries without their own tea cultivation.
Germany
In German lands tea was since the 17th century in the form of import duties with duties assigned. Since the failure of the Prussian Asiatic Company in 1765, Prussia tried to prevent tea drinking in the East Frisian Tea War and imposed high tariffs on imported tea. In 1778 tea drinking was temporarily banned in Prussia due to a lack of foreign currency, and in 1784 imports were stopped. In 1909 the tax on tea was doubled in the German Reich.
On the basis of the “Tea Tax Act” in 1949, the tea tax was levied as a consumption tax due to the federal government , which, depending on the quality, was between 15.00 and 19.48 DM per kilogram of tea; at the same time the management was lifted. This meant that the black market that had now arisen could not be effectively combated. On July 30, 1953 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 710 ) it was reduced to DM 3.00 per kilogram: From the introduction of this lower tax rate on August 24, 1953, the black market collapsed overnight.
With the repeal of the "Coffee and Tea Tax Act" of May 5, 1980 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 497 ) by a new version of the Coffee Tax Act of December 21, 1992 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2150, 2199 ), tea taxation became effective January 1 Abolished in 1993. The income from the tea tax amounted to 59 million DM in 1992 and only 6 million DM in 1993.
The tea tax has been abolished within the EU since 1995.
United Kingdom
In 1765, the British Parliament imposed a tax on tea and other goods exported to the North American colonies through the Stamp Act . In this form, the colonists should subsequently contribute to the costs of the Seven Years' War against France (1754–1763).
The North American traders boycotted tea imported from England since 1770 because of the high taxes of 119 percent and the corrupt customs authorities in Boston. This made tea smuggling , in which mainly Dutch ships participated, even more profitable.
With the Tea Act of 1773, the British Parliament increased the tea tax again and at the same time tried to prevent tea smuggling into the North American colonies. The aim of the law was not so much to satisfy the Crown's need for money, but also to support the sale of the troubled British East India Company , in whose London warehouses large quantities of unsold tea had been left behind. The company was to be given a monopoly on the duty-free and tax-free export of tea from England, and the colonists were to be compelled to buy the tea in small quantities directly from representatives of the company, thereby avoiding wholesaling. An alliance of traders and smugglers mobilized opposition to the law and organized the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773 .
In 1854 the tea tax (or the import duty, tea duty ) was reduced by the liberal Prime Minister Gladstone in order to promote free trade and tea cultivation in his own colonies.
United States
The US has an import tax on tea. For Chinese tea it is 16 percent.
China
A tea tax already existed during the Song Dynasty .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tea history at www.ernst-janssen.com
- ↑ Johann Haddinga : The book of the East Frisian tea . Verlag Schuster, Leer 1977, ISBN 3-7963-0116-9 , p. 14-15 .
- ↑ Reiner Sahm: To hell with the tax! 5000 years of taxes - a long path of suffering for mankind. Springer Verlag, 2012, p. 181 f.
