when was income tax introduced in the uk
History of taxation in the United Kingdom When the United Kingdom of Great Britain came into being on May 1, 1707, the window tax, which had been introduced across England and Wales under the Act of Making Good the Deficiency of the Clipped Money in 1696,[4] continued. It had been designed to impose tax relative to the prosperity of the taxpayer, but without the controversy that then surrounded the idea of income tax. At that time, many people opposed income tax on principle because they believed that the disclosure of personal income represented an unacceptable governmental intrusion into private matters, and a potential threat to personal liberty.[5] In fact the first permanent British income tax was not introduced until 1842, and the issue remained intensely controversial well into the 20th century.[6]