Tax

===Forms===
In monetary economies prior to fiat banking, a critical form of taxation was [[seigniorage]], the tax on the creation of money.

Other obsolete forms of taxation include:
* [[Scutage]], which is paid in lieu of military service; strictly speaking, it is a commutation of a non-tax obligation rather than a tax as such but functioning as a tax in practice.
* [[Tallage]], a tax on feudal dependents.
* [[Tithe]], a tax-like payment (one-tenth of one's earnings or agricultural produce), paid to the Church (and thus too specific to be a tax in strict technical terms). This should not be confused with the modern practice of the same name which is normally voluntary.
* (Feudal) aids, a type of tax or due that was paid by a vassal to his lord during feudal times.
* [[Danegeld]], a medieval land tax originally raised to pay off raiding Danes and later used to fund military expenditures.
* [[Carucage]], a tax which replaced the Danegeld in England.
* [[Tax farming]], the principle of assigning the responsibility for tax revenue collection to private citizens or groups.
* [[Socage]], a feudal tax system based on land rent.
* [[Burgage]], a feudal tax system based on land rent.

Some principalities taxed windows, doors, or cabinets to reduce consumption of imported glass and hardware. Armoires, [[hutch (furniture)|hutches]], and [[wardrobes]] were employed to evade taxes on doors and cabinets. In some circumstances, taxes are also used to enforce public policy like congestion charge (to cut road traffic and encourage public transport) in London. In Tsarist Russia, [[beard tax|taxes]] were clamped on beards. Today, one of the most-complicated taxation systems worldwide is in Germany. Three-quarters of the world's taxation literature refers to the German system.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} Under the German system, there are 118 laws, 185 forms, and 96,000 regulations, spending [[Euro|€]]3.7 billion to collect the income tax.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} In the United States, the [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] has about [[IRS tax forms|1,177 forms and instructions]],<ref>{{cite web |title=IRS pick list |url=https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/formsInstructions.html |publisher=IRS |access-date=21 January 2013}}</ref> 28.4111 megabytes of [[Internal Revenue Code]]<ref>{{cite web |title=title 26 US Code |url=http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_26.shtml |publisher=US House of Reperesentitives |access-date=21 January 2013}}</ref> which contained 3.8 million words as of 1 February 2010,<ref>{{cite web |last=Caron |first=Paul L. |title=How Many Words Are in the Internal Revenue Code? |url=http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2011/10/slate-how-many.html |access-date=21 January 2013 |date=28 October 2011}}</ref> numerous tax regulations in the [[Code of Federal Regulations]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?collectionCode=CFR&searchPath=Title+26%2FChapter+I&granuleId=CFR-2012-title26-vol1-toc-id2&packageId=CFR-2012-title26-vol1&oldPath=Title+26%2FTOC&fromPageDetails=true&collapse=true&ycord=0 |title=26 CFR – Table of Contents |publisher=Gpo.gov |date=1 April 2012 |access-date=22 January 2013}}</ref> and supplementary material in the [[Internal Revenue Bulletin]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2012–23 |url=https://www.irs.gov/irb/2012-23_IRB/ar08.html |publisher=Internal Revenue Service |access-date=7 June 2012 |date=4 June 2012}}</ref> Today, governments in more advanced economies (i.e. Europe and North America) tend to rely more on direct taxes, while developing economies (i.e. several African countries) rely more on indirect taxes.