The Window Tax – Covid-19’s favourite tax

Winter is coming. The days are shorter and nights are longer. Flu season is upon us, and this year we have the added stress of the Coronavirus, which thrives in the cool weather. More sick people and less daylight, all because of winter. Well, there was once a tax which had a similar effect on the population.

The so-called window tax, as the name suggests, taxed windows. Designed as a progressive tax, it was meant to tax the wealthy and lessen the tax burden on the poorer population. Buildings with more than ten windows fell under this specific tax, which increased based on the amount of windows. Ten to twenty windows meant an extra four shillings (£27.96 in 2019) and buildings with more than twenty windows had to pay an extra eight shillings (£55.91 in 2019). These rates were later changed and in some instances, heavily raised. 

Since the poorer population generally lived in buildings with fewer windows, they were, in theory,  taxed less. While that theoretically worked for the rural poor, the same was not so for the urban poor. Many of the poorer population in rural England owned their houses, whereas the poorer urban population did not. The poorer rural population, living in houses with fewer than ten windows, were thus spared from the tax. However, the poorer urban population were not only more likely to rent, they usually lived in tenement buildings. These were considered to be one big building, so the tax was passed on to the inhabitants in the form of heavier rents.

Thank you king!

The window tax was first imposed in England in 1696. King William III of England was in desperate need of additional revenue, so implemented this easy to determine tax. However, people went to great pains to avoid paying taxes - even more than 300 years ago! They didn’t set up shell companies on the Cayman Islands, but instead found other ways to circumvent the tax. After all, you only had to pay the tax for existing windows. So why not get rid of them?

And that is exactly what happened. Windows were bricked up and new buildings were constructed with the window tax in mind. The number of buildings with exactly seven windows dropped by two-thirds from 1766 when the tax was extended to include houses with more than six windows.

This in turn lead to poorer living conditions. Fewer windows meant a lack of sunlight and bad ventilation which meant the tenants were more likely to be victims of typhus, smallpox and cholera epidemics. 

Daylight robbery

It is even reported that the saying daylight robbery originates from the window tax, because people were literally robbed of their daylight - though this was never officially confirmed. As you can imagine, the window tax was hugely unpopular,  Even though it survived for more than 150 years! 

The tax was eventually repealed in 1851, thanks to many petitions claiming this less a tax on the poor, and more of a tax on health, sunlight and air.