2. c. 3), "An Act for granting a Subsidy to his Majestie for Supply of his Extraordinary Occasions", was enacted in the reign of Charles II.
[5] This act was described by Cecil Chandaman as "the product of the hardest and most constructive thinking by the Commons on the subject of direct taxation during the Restoration period".
[6] Beckett calls it "an attempt to resurrect and renovate the basic principle of the old subsidy which national wealth would be assessed at a pound rate", and thus the precursor of the 1689 and 1692 acts.
CAP XX An act for a grant to their Majesties of an aid of twelve pence in the pound for one year for the necessary of defence of their realms.
... shall pay unto their Majesties the sum of twelve pence for twenty shillings by the year which the said manors messuages lands tenements hereditaments and other the premisses now worth to be leased if the same were truly and bona fide or leased at a rack rent and according to the full true value thereof without any respect had to the present rents reserved for the same if such rents have been reserved upon such leases or estates made for which any fine or income hath been paid or secured and without any respect had to any former rates or taxes thereupon imposed: The Land Tax Act 1688 (1 Will.
Instead, income was calculated indirectly by reference to the deemed yield from the capital value of assets, to which was applied a rate of twelve pence (one shilling) in the pound (5%).
[citation needed] The charge on land in 1689 depended on a valuation of all property throughout the country to find its open market rental value.
As time passed the original valuation become increasingly unrealistic and, moreover, the relative value of property in different areas changed, especially as the Industrial Revolution got underway.
[citation needed] The quota acts divided the total for England and Wales between towns and counties using the 1689 valuations, which were never revised.
Unpaid local worthies were appointed by the acts to run the tax, and they split the total for their area down to parishes and individual properties in proportion to the 1689 valuations.
3. c. 60) made the Land Tax permanent, although some MPs complained that the government was setting historic injustices in stone.
Prime Minister William Pitt resisted a new valuation on the grounds that the 1692 figures had been used for over 100 years despite the annual opportunity for reevaluation when the tax was re-imposed.
[citation needed] Parliament had had plenty of chances to reform, and had been content to continue the old system; so there was no reason to change now.
For most of the eighteenth century, the bulk of government revenue came from customs and excise—taxes on everyday goods such as salt, candles, leather, beer, soap and starch, as well as luxury goods like wine, brandy, silks, gold and silver thread, silver plate, horses, coaches and hats.
[citation needed] Until the mid-19th century the land tax commissioners were local property owners acting without remuneration.
4. c. 123) which names about 65,000 land tax commissioners; it comprises 757 vellum membranes of sheepskin measuring 348 metres (1,142 ft).