A short history of taxation

There are dangers when tax legislation is dictated by political objectives

The carrot or the stick

The Rosetta Stone has become synonymous with having the key to solving a puzzle. This 2,000-year-old piece of rock, discovered in the ruins of an Egyptian temple, carried the same message in three languages. One of the languages, inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphics, had been lost to memory. Having a parallel text beside it in a surviving language provided the solution as to how it might be read.

What’s not ...