Bachelor tax

A bachelor tax is a tax imposed on bachelors.

Although a bachelor tax has been viewed more recently as part of a tax on childlessness, which were used frequently by member states of the Warsaw Pact, historically, the motives for a bachelor tax were more varied than this. Often, a bachelor tax would be instantiated as part of a moral panic due to the important status given to marriage in these places, where speeches would be held in legislatures (such as the legislatures of New Jersey, Michigan, and Ancient Rome) regarding the supposed libertine or delinquent status of bachelor men. Still other locations would find reason to instantiate a bachelor tax for racial reasons (such as in South Africa), nationalistic reasons, to help cover welfare programs, or more simply as a pure revenue measure.

The Lex Papia Poppaea was introduced in 9 AD by emperor Augustus to encourage marriage. In particular, penalties were imposed on those who were celibate, with an exception granted to Vestal Virgins. (Ulp. Frag. xvii.1). The law also imposed penalties on married persons who had no children (qui liberos non habent, Gaius, ii.111) from the age of twenty-five to sixty in a man, and from the age of twenty to fifty in a woman. (Tacit. Ann. xv.19).

Resm-i mücerred was a bachelor tax instituted in the Ottoman Empire by at least the 15th century in conjunction with the resm-i çift and the resm-i bennâk. Those who fell under the tax were more likely to migrate to other areas. Migrant mücerred were more likely to make their way to a growing town.

In 1695, the English parliament passed The Marriage Duty Act or Registration Tax, which imposed a tax on births, marriages, burials, childless widowers, and bachelors over the age of 25. It was primarily used as a revenue raising mechanism for war on France and as a means of ensuring that proper records were kept by an Anglican church official. The tax was found ineffective and abolished by 1706.

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