In order to explore the historical facts about an old taxation system on windows in the United Kingdom, read on. The window tax was a tax which was introduced into the United Kingdom in the late 17th century by King William the third. He was finding it hard to find a way to tax people based on their income or wealth because many people refused to tell the king how much they earned. They felt it was a completely private matter and certainly no business of the King.
So, in order to be able to impose some sort of taxation on his people, the king decided that people with large houses could be taxed on a tiered system. There was a tax rate of 2 shillings for every householder. This equates to roughly ten new pence. In addition to this there was an extra tax for the householder if their house had more than ten windows.
If the house had between ten and twenty windows, then this extra tax was 4 shillings and anything over twenty windows had to pay eight shillings. Later, as the king wanted to increase the tax, he reduced the minimum number of windows to be taxed from ten to seven. This was further changed in 1825 to eight windows.
Poor residents of course did not have to pay this extra window tax. If they were eligible to receive church charity, for example, then they would be exempt from paying.
However, in the 17th and 18th centuries, many larger houses could be seen with bricked up windows. This is an obvious attempt to avoid this window tax. In Scotland, after William Pitt the Younger introduced this tax in the 1780s, the windows were painted black with white frames. This was also done in order to avoid paying the tax. These popularly became known as Pitt's pictures. Examples of these windows can still be seen in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh.
It is thought that several of the richest families took this opportunity to commission huge houses with the largest possible number of windows. They even had windows installed over blank wall space to prove how rich they were.
So, in order to be able to impose some sort of taxation on his people, the king decided that people with large houses could be taxed on a tiered system. There was a tax rate of 2 shillings for every householder. This equates to roughly ten new pence. In addition to this there was an extra tax for the householder if their house had more than ten windows.
If the house had between ten and twenty windows, then this extra tax was 4 shillings and anything over twenty windows had to pay eight shillings. Later, as the king wanted to increase the tax, he reduced the minimum number of windows to be taxed from ten to seven. This was further changed in 1825 to eight windows.
Poor residents of course did not have to pay this extra window tax. If they were eligible to receive church charity, for example, then they would be exempt from paying.
However, in the 17th and 18th centuries, many larger houses could be seen with bricked up windows. This is an obvious attempt to avoid this window tax. In Scotland, after William Pitt the Younger introduced this tax in the 1780s, the windows were painted black with white frames. This was also done in order to avoid paying the tax. These popularly became known as Pitt's pictures. Examples of these windows can still be seen in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh.
It is thought that several of the richest families took this opportunity to commission huge houses with the largest possible number of windows. They even had windows installed over blank wall space to prove how rich they were.
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