People in many countries around the world have long complained that taxes don’t make any sense. Well you might stop complaining about paying your taxes when you realize you don’t have to pay some of these bizarre levies.

Some of the strangest taxes in history include:

1.      Illegal Drug Taxes

Many US states impose taxes on the sale of illegal drugs such as crack cocaine. The tax is supposed to be collected when drug dealers are arrested. No revenue is apparently collected from the criminals but they can be charged with tax evasion. Nobody tries to pay this tax because they would presumably be arrested for selling illegal drugs.

2.      The Urine Tax

The Roman Emperors Vespasian and Nero actually taxed urine or rather urine collectors that gathered the liquid from public latrines for commercial purposes.

3.      Machine Gun Tax Stamps

During the 1930s the United States Congress attempted to ban the ownership of machine guns by requiring purchasers to have a stamp indicating that they had paid a special tax. The tax was weird because the government never actually issued the machine gun tax stamps. That meant nobody could legally own a machine gun because to own one you had to pay a tax the government never actually collected.

4.      The Gas Tax

In 2003 the Labour government in New Zealand attempted to control greenhouse gases by taxing cattle bowel gas emissions. Not surprisingly the government later abandoned the effort.

5.      The Card Tax

Until 1960 British subjects that played cards had to pay a small tax. The tax was the work of King James I who considered card playing sinful.

6.      The Stolen Property Tax

Stolen property is actually considered income by the US national tax agency – the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS’s tax code requires individuals to report stolen property in their possession on their tax returns. Interestingly enough this practice is actually unconstitutional in the United States because it would be self-incrimination.

The lengths to which governments can go to in order to collect revenue are extreme. Hopefully our political leaders won’t get any ideas from this list. For more information on all tax related issues, including hiring accountancy services for IT contractors, visit Nixon Williams.