Bachelor tax

Motives

Although a bachelor tax has been viewed more recently as part of a tax on childlessness, which were used frequently by member states of the Warsaw Pact, historically, the motives for a bachelor tax were more varied than this. Often, a bachelor tax would be instantiated as part of a moral panic due to the important status given to marriage in these places, where speeches would be held in legislatures (such as the legislatures of New Jersey, Michigan, and Ancient Rome) regarding the supposed libertine or delinquent status of bachelor men. Still other locations would find reason to instantiate a bachelor tax for racial reasons (such as in South Africa), nationalistic reasons, to help cover welfare programs, or more simply as a pure revenue measure.

Ancient Rome

The Lex Papia Poppaea was introduced in 9 AD by emperor Augustus to encourage marriage. In particular, penalties were imposed on those who were celibate, with an exception granted to Vestal Virgins. (Ulp. Frag. xvii.1). The law also imposed penalties on married persons who had no children (qui liberos non habent, Gaius, ii.111) from the age of twenty-five to sixty in a man, and from the age of twenty to fifty in a woman. (Tacit. Ann. xv.19).

Ottoman Empire

Resm-i mücerred was a bachelor tax instituted in the Ottoman Empire by at least the 15th century in conjunction with the resm-i çift and the resm-i bennâk. Those who fell under the tax were more likely to migrate to other areas. Migrant mücerred were more likely to make their way to a growing town.

England

In 1695, the English parliament passed The Marriage Duty Act or Registration Tax, which imposed a tax on births, marriages, burials, childless widowers, and bachelors over the age of 25. It was primarily used as a revenue raising mechanism for war on France and as a means of ensuring that proper records were kept by an Anglican church official. The tax was found ineffective and abolished by 1706.

United States

By 1821, the state of Missouri applied a $1 tax on all unmarried men.

The state of Michigan had made repeated attempts to instantiate a bachelor tax. In 1837, state senator Edward D. Ellis attempted to pass such a bill, but the measure failed. In 1848, a petition made it to a House committee, but did not reach the floor. In 1849, another proposal was made in a House committee that did not reach the floor. Again in 1850, another petition reached the House, but did not find a sponsor. During the civil war it was proposed again, this time as a revenue measure as opposed to a public welfare measure, but again failed to reach the floor. It was then repeatedly brought up in 1897, 1901, 1911, 1919, with the first resulting in counter proposals for a similar tax to be applied to women who reject marriage proposals and the final resulting in arguments that bachelors had a statistically higher rate of delinquency as opposed to other groups. The final proposed bill that also made the floor of the Michigan congress was in 1935 before it too failed due to economic considerations of the time.

On February 12, 1898, Assemblyman Waller of the New Jersey state legislature proposed a bachelor tax as a sumptuary tax; however, the bill was not passed.

In 1921, the state of Montana applied a $3 tax on all bachelors in the state. One of them, William Atzinger, refused to pay on sex discrimination grounds. On January 11, 1922, the state supreme court struck down the “bachelor tax” and another poll tax applicable only to men. However, it was done so on the grounds that the Montanan constitution of 1889 did not grant the legislature the power to tax individual persons; and attempts to define it as a policing measure for matters of public health as opposed to a revenue measure were found invalid.

In the state of California in 1934, as a response to the low 1933 birth rate in California, minister of Finance Roland Vandegrift proposed a $5 to $25 bachelor tax, but the measure did not succeed.

South Africa

In 1919, South Africa imposed a bachelor tax for racial reasons in order to match the white population growth with the black one.

Germany

In 1923, the town of Repelen, Germany passed a bachelor tax of 2000 marks per month. However, this law was quickly overturned by federal authorities.

Italy

A bachelor tax was levied in Italy from 1927 until the fall of Mussolini in Rome in 1943.

In a speech given by Benito Mussolini on May 26, 1927, the tax is referenced to have garnered 40 to 50 million lira, but that the purpose of the tax was a race-based pronatalist policy:

Let us be quite clear: what are 40 million Italians compared to 90 million Germans and 200 million Slavs? What are 40 million Italians compared to 40 million Frenchmen, plus 90 million inhabitants of their colonies, or 46 million Englishmen plus 450 million people who live in their colonies?

By 1936, Italian bachelors paid nearly double their normal income tax rate.

In 1999, the mayor of Vastogirardi, Italy proposed to reinstitute a bachelor tax locally.

Poland

In 1946 Poland introduced Bykowe, which was a tax on childlessness that included a tax on those unmarried above 21 years from January 1, 1946 to November 29, 1956. It was later extended to those over 25 years of age until January 1, 1973 when it was repealed. It formed a part of Communist natalist policies and other taxes on childlessness that were instituted in the Soviet Union and Romania at around the same time.

Soviet Union

A childlessness tax was enforced from 1941–1990, although the tax was applied to all childless persons, it was applied to childless men from 25 to 50 years of age, but childless married women from 20 to 45 years of age. The tax was income based and took 6 percent of the childless person's wages. Between 1991-1992, the tax was only applied to men before the tax was revoked due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Romania

In 1986, some time after the population increase from the decreţei 770 generation, a celibacy tax was instituted. The law continued to be enforced until the Romanian Revolution of 1989.