Talk:Tax farming

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I do not understand what the last portion about new IRS policies has to do with the article.

I do not understand why there is a blatant spelling mistake in the title of that section.

[edit] Needs a lot of work

This article reads as a critique of a fairly trivial US political issue. The first section (Use, benefit, liability) reads as brief piece of invective that merely shows the writer doesn't approve of the practise, and the second section (Moden variations) is the writers criticism of the current American practise. If you compare earlier and later versions, you can see quite clearly the way the editor has changed a brief but pragmatic review into one that is much more negative. There's also a vague taste of Old World bad, New World good about the changes too -- as if tax farming is bad because it's un-American, gosh darn it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tax_farming&diff=88853922&oldid=75286930

Tax farming has in fact been a major factor in societies across history. It was stepping stone in development of financial systems. By modern standards it may be a flawed system, but it was widely used and had massive implications on the way ancient and mediaeval economies grew. It's a big deal that this article should be straightened out. At the very least it needs:

  • 1. A definition.
  • 2. Examples in history sampling a range of cultures/continents.
  • 3. Advantages: why the system developed (presumably because civil services as we know them didn't exist, but also liimits in communication between the centre of the state and the regions.
  • 4. Disadvantages: the negative effects on economic growth, influences on social discontent.
  • 5. Literary allusions (e.g., Bible, Tacitus, Cicero, etc. all make mention of tax farming directly or indirectly).
  • 6. Why the system fell out of use (e.g., centralisation/better communiction/professional civil services).

Plus, the last section appears to be about debt collection not tax farming. Tax farming is merely collecting taxes on a normal basis, whereas this section seems to be focusing on the US tax service using outside contractors to collect unpaid debts.

Cheers, Neale Neale Monks 23:21, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Who was first?

I just ran into mention of this practice in Macedonia, and some of the other cultures mentioned here sound like possible rivals for earliest use. I don't know who was first, but I doubt it was the Romans. Mike Serfas 21:53, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

It probably depends how you define "tax farming" and likely the basic technique evolved independently in many different places. The only system I know about the Roman one, and that is the one usually meant by the phrase "tax farming". But there is clearly space here for experts in the history of other cultures to add and expand. Cheers, Neale Neale Monks 22:07, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

The article already mentions the Ptolemies -- They definitely used it pre-Gracchus! - frippo (not logged in, May 12, 2008)

[edit] External links

I removed the following external link because it isn't English language. But it may be interesting to some, so I've kept the link here:

Cheers, Neale Neale Monks 13:19, 7 June 2007 (UTC)