Not only bachelors, but widowers have been unequally taxed in this country ; and there is more than one instance within the last sixty years, in which persons have been favoured by special exemptions, or have been charged less on account of the number of their children. In 1695 an act was passed (6 & 7 Will. III. c. 6) entitled "An Act for granting to his Majesty certain rates and duties upon marriages, births, and burials, and upon bachelors and widowers, for the term of five years, for carrying on the war against France with vigour." Bachelors above the age of twenty-five, and widowers without children, paid one shilling yearly, and further according to their rank.
Thus for a bachelor duke the tax leaf la, and other ranks in proportion. As esquire was charged thirty-five shilling: a-year, and a person of the rank of gen. tleman five shillings. Persons possessk of real estate of 501. a-year, or personal property of 600/. value, paid five shil lings. A supplementary act was passed two or three years afterwards (9 Will. III. c. 32), to prevent frauds in the col. lection of the taxes imposed by the former act, but the tax was allowed to expire in 1706. In 1785, when Mr. Phi proposed a tax on female servants, he ex empted persons who kept only one ser vant, and who had two or more lawful children or grandchildren under the age of fourteen living in the house with them.
But to make up for the deficiency he that the tax on servants should be higher for bachelors than for others; and he stated that the idea of this tax was borrowed from Mr. Fox. (25 Geo. III. a. 43.) This differential rate has been continued to the present time, and the number of servants charged at the higher rate in 1842 was 11,831, or rather more than one-tenth of the whole number charged. Roman Catholic clergymen are exempt from additional duty. When the income tel was imposed by Mr. Pitt, in 1798, deductions were allowed on account of children, and an abatement was made of 5L per cent. to a person with children, when the income was above 60L and under 400L ; and other rates of abatement were allowed according to the amount of income and the number of children ; this indulgence extended to incomes of 50001. a-year and upwards.
There does not appear to be a tax on bachelors in any country in Europe. In the city of Frankfort an income tax is paid by journeymen who work in the city, " if they are foreigners and not mar ried."