The Window and Hearth Tax

Something M said on the weekend has triggered some research on my part. Apparently a sign of wealth was the number of chimneys and windows in a house. So I wondered where this had come from.

In 1662, the Hearth Tax was introduced by the government of Charles II in 1662 “at a time of serious fiscal emergency”.

 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=233&j=1.

Parliament had decided that the king needed a regular source of income and this tax was supposed to cover his income.

Reading about the history, it sounds like the original bureaucratic mass of paperwork while they tried to make it work. The law was adjusted in 1662, 1663, 1664 and different means were tried to assess and collect the tax. Remember this was in the days of horses, paper and pen, and long physical distances between the seat of government and the people. Besides being very difficult to administer, it didn’t have the desired affect in producing enough money for the King. Including the difficulties in collecting, certain households were exempt from the tax and in some cases had to produce certificates of exemption. Apparently if your house was worth less than 20 shillings, you were exempt from the tax.

I suspect this was also an issue in a day when many people were unable to read and write.

“A revision of the Act in 1664 made the tax payable by all who had more than two chimneys: a stopped-up chimney, on discovery, being charged double. The revision also made landlords liable to pay the tax of poor tenants.” http://www.witheridge-historical-archive.com/taxes.htm

So the more hearths or fireplaces you had, the more you paid.

'every dwelling and other House and Edifice …shall be chargeable ….for every firehearth and stove….the sum of twoe shillings by the yeare' http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/hearthtax/hearthtax/history/

The tax was abolished by William III in 1689, ostensibly as being "a great oppression to the poorer sort"

“and a breach of civil liberies in that it allowed every man's house to be entered and searched by persons unknown. In fact, the abolition seems to have been due to the tax not having raised the revenue that had been estimated, and being too expensive to collect. “ http://www.witheridge-historical-archive.com/taxes.htm

The Window tax was brought in in 1696 and repealed in 1851

The tax would be paid on a house of more than six windows. Unfortunately none of these records appeared to have survived, one way for a person to by pass the tax was to brick up one or two windows over the stated six, even today on some of the older houses the bricked up windows are still there.

In 1792 houses with 7-9 windows had to pay a tax of 2 shillings, and those people with property containing 10-19 windows would pay a tax of 4 shillings.

In 1825 the number of widows taxable went from six to eight windows. The Window Tax would be replaced in 1851 with a tax called House Duty.

http://www.longparish.org.uk/history/windowtax.htm

 

The Window Tax could be assessed from outside the house, which overcame one of the main objections of Hearth Tax. Nevertheless it was very unpopular and viewed as a tax on light and air.

The tax was levied on occupiers not owners. Small dwellings which were not subject to poor and church rates were exempt. The charge per house was a basic 2s. but houses with between 10 and 20 windows paid 8s. In 1709 the rate for larger houses was increased.

Over the years the yield from the tax gradually reduced, as a result of poor administration and the fact that more and more householders blocked up non-essential windows to avoid payment of the tax. In 1747 the old Window Tax Act was repealed and a new one put in its place.

Under the new Act there was a basic rate of 2s. plus 6d. per window for houses with between 10 and 14 windows. This increased to 9d. between 15 and 19 and 1s. per window over 20. At first the tax yield increased but then so did the blocking up of windows and in the 1750s and 1760s the rate of tax was increased. The tax was not finally abolished until 1851 but towards the end it was not strictly enforced.

Rugbourne provides a good example locally of a large house with windows blocked up to avoid payment of tax

http://www.highlittletonhistory.org.uk/transcriptions0905/Rates&taxes/Window%20Tax.pdf

According to the BBC

People dodged payment by bricking in windows, camouflaging them or even building dummy windows so that inspectors were confused. Some people blocked in windows and then unblocked them as soon as the tax man had gone.

Over the years people became so clever at avoiding the tax that revenue fell and the law was tightened in 1747.

The window tax continued until 1851.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/iloveny/architecture/windows/gallery/gallery25.shtml

According to Wikipedia

The window tax was a glass tax which was an important social, cultural and architectural force in the United Kingdom during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Glass making was costly and the use of glass for windows and other purposes was even costlier because of a tax levied specifically on it. The tax was introduced in 1696 under King William III of England and was designed to impose tax relative to the prosperity of the taxpayer. The bigger the house, the more windows it was likely to have, hence the more tax the occupants would pay. This is the reason for the bricked-up windows so often seen in very old houses in the UK.

The richest families in the kingdom used this tax to set themselves apart from the merely rich. They would commission a country home or a manor house whose architecture would make the maximum possible use of windows. In extreme cases they would have windows built over structural walls. It was an exercice in ostentation, spurred by the window tax.

The tax was not repealed until 1851, when it was replaced by a tax akin to the present-day "council tax".

http://july.fixedreference.org/en/20040724/wikipedia/Window_tax

So there you go. Rich people, in years gone by, liked to have hearths (and therefore chimneys) and windows to prove how rich they were.

I tried to find photos of buildings with their windows bricked up, without any luck. I will continue to keep my eyes open.

Madeleine

Monday, 8 December 2008