Bachelor tax

[1][2] Such explicit measures historically would be instituted as part of a moral panic or homophobia due to the important status given to marriage at various times and places (as in Ancient Rome, or in various U.S. state legislatures during the early 20th century).

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 Anglican church officials.

In particular, it was meant as part of Hitler's "three Ks" policy (Kirche, Küche, Kinder or Church, Kitchen, Children) to get women "back into the home.

In the early 20th century, this morphed into a general discussion of "race suicide",[3][43] and consequently there was much literature supporting racial-based pronatalist policies, typically in the field of eugenics.

[36][45][3] Many Warsaw Pact countries instituted some form of a bachelor tax, such as the Soviet Union,[35] Poland,[11] Romania,[9][39] and Bulgaria.

[48] The first distinction in marital status as part of an income tax happened in the U.S. by 1930 after Poe v. Seaborn, where "income-splitting" was allowed in community property states.

[51] In the Soviet Union, the effect on the fertility rate of the policy was likewise inconclusive; and it was also found to be fairly regressive, as it tended to hit rural, poorer bachelors hardest.

Late 19th century illustration and perspective on the bachelor tax