Daylight Tax

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The Beginning

In an attempt by the Government to rake in more revenue on behalf of the King, on the 19th May 1662 a Hearth or Fireplace Tax was introduced in England (1661 for Scotland) and for every fireplace in every property, 2 Shillings per annum had to be paid to the King. The King at that time being Charles Stuart II.

King Charles II 1630 - 1685 Reigned 1649 - 1685

The Tax collectors would quite simply come into your property and count your fire places, make notes and then hit you with the bill. It was the occupier not the owner of the property that paid the duty.

" two ere I see...roight...thats...er...4 shillins it be my dears "

It wasn't so bad though, as you paid duty in two easy installments each year, one on the 25th March known as Lady Day and the other on Michaelmas or the 29th of September.

Poor peasants who's property was worth less than 20 Shillings, were suppose to be exempt from this tax as were schools and charitable buildings like Almshouses but some did actually end up paying some small token amounts, as the Kings coffers had to be built up.

If you didn't pay, missed payments or couldn't afford to pay, then you could face a downwards spiral in the work house's to pay off your debts, with property being seized until payments were made.

The map below illustrates some areas in the Midlands, UK, that were recorded to show how many people lived in certain areas that would have a hearth in their house to have a tax levied upon them.

To rake in lost revenues from people blocking up their hearths, in 1664 an assessment was made on the amount of chimneys that house had and a duty was levied on any property with 2 or more chimneys...a chimney tax.

It was all done properly and assessments on hearths and chimneys were created by the tax collectors to show how much duty people actually paid, set against the amount that they were supposed to pay. All the assessments and tax returns were duplicated, one being kept by the local magistrate or Clerk of the Peace and the other to the Crown via the Exchequer.

England was mapped out to show to the crown where the best revenues came from and maps like the one below were that meticulous that they could be used in 1750 as a population census.

The consequence of this ridiculous tax did nothing more than see the majority of people brick up their fireplaces and chimneys, take them out completely or reduce the amount of hearths and chimneys in their homes down to just one.

If you was rich of course then this tax didn't effect you. The King wasn't bothered either way, just as long as he got the cash off everyone.

Below is a photograph of a hearth assessment Tax sheet from 1666 to show how many people in a typical London street had hearths to be levied duty upon. They were all meticulously recorded by the diligent tax collectors.

Some of the properties must have been expensive, some had 4 hearths and one had 7 ! probably a bakers shop or a smoked fish curing shop !

Surviving Hearth Tax return forms are today used by historians to assess the different sizes and types of buildings there once was and also to learn about the divide of rich and poor and indeed the population figures for that time. This is probably the only good this tax ever did.

There was no central heating in those days, so every room had a fireplace to keep the occupants of those rooms warm, especially in the winter. When this tax came about it just meant that hundreds if not thousands of people went cold through the winter months, all huddled up over a single fireplace, shivering and wrapping themselves up with as many coats, jumpers and shirts they could get over themselves or share between them.

It stands to reason that attracting chills, common colds and other ailments became rife as heating in peoples homes got reduced. Also hot meals that would all have been done over the hearth or a burning fireplace would now be more of a luxury to the poor.

The average working class wage was about 7d ( pennies) a day for men 4d for women on which they lived, so saving up a couple of shillings was difficult. For the working classes in the 1600's there was no such thing as "disposable income" they needed every penny they earned.

With 240d (pennies) or 20s (shillings) to a £ (pound), it took just over a month to earn a pound.

After 27 years, this stupid tax it was finally abolished in 1689 by King William III and 1690 for Scotland. Everyone had a sigh of relief and thought how grand and noble the King was to abolish it...hip hip...hurah !.....

King William III 1650 -1702 Reigned 1689 -1702

.....but then, 7 years later, he introduced an even stupider tax, the now infamous Daylight Tax.

Daylight Robbery

Daylight Tax was introduced in 1696, it was officially called Window or Glass Tax in that a property owner or occupier was taxed on the number of windows in their building. It may seam very unfair but actually it was seen as a tax on the rich and not on the poor. The larger the property with your wealth that you had, the more windows would be within it and the more Tax you were levied.

So the solution for many property owners and occupiers was to brick up the windows to save money. Many of these building can still be seen in the UK today like the example below.

Every window in a property was not however individually counted as the duty was calculated in different tax bands, similar to the way income tax in the United Kingdom is worked out today.

It worked like this. Band A: Every house or property was taxed at 2 shillings with moderate small windows. Band B: All houses or premises with 10 to 20 windows were taxed 4 shillings. Band C: All houses or premises which exceeded 20 windows were taxed 8 shillings.

The owner/occupier of the large building depicted below, that still stands today, actually bricked up all of the windows and consequently paid no tax at all. I wonder if the money saved was off-set by the price of candles or other form of lighting ?

Of course again the very rich folk were not effected by this tax as a few Shillings was such a paltry sum to them, in fact they would have structural changes made to their manors and mansions to include even more windows. This was done with arrogance, pride and vainglory, to show off how rich they were, to impress their peers and minions. Its amazing to think that there were actually millionaires in that era.

The overall daylight taxes were amended in 1747 whereas if a house or property had 10 up to 14 windows a tax of 6 Shillings was levied. If a house or property had from 15 to 20 windows then a tax of 9 Shillings was levied and 20 or more windows demanded the amount of 10 Shillings, all levies fixed annually.

The tax was almost doubled in 1812 during the Napoleonic wars, to attract more cash into the Governments coffers. "Wars are expensive you know, and someone has to pay for them" and it was during this time that most of the bricked up windows appeared.

In 1815 the duty was lowered to the previous levy and in 1823 it was almost halved.

These levies were again amended in 1825 where a house or property with eight windows or less became tax exempt.

In 1851, 155 years after Daylight or Window Tax had been introduced it was abolished and replaced by House Duty or a tax on property which is similar to normal methods of tax today.

The consequence of 155 years of people being taxed for having daylight come into their properties resulted in nearly all owners and occupiers of properties bricking up the majority of their windows if not all the windows. There are still many surviving buildings in England and Scotland from these times that can still be seen with their windows bricked up. These surviving buildings are generally old factories, shops and warehouses and stand as a testimony to the ridiculous levels that Governments will actually stoop to in order to rake in revenue.

If anything, these times in history are the ones that should have been called the 'dark ages' as this tax plunged a lot of properties into dingy, dim lighting or even total darkness as they all bricked up their windows to avoid paying duty.

I bet the sales of candles and hurricane lamps increased a hundred fold during these times, and there is always someone somewhere who can profit out of dire circumstances.

If the same Tax was to appear again then I could only foresee that windows would again get bricked up. Thank you for visiting my website and I hope that you have enjoyed this page, please do read more pages on my site by clicking on the links provided below. I do welcome comments and suggestions.