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xvi Introduction Egypt We will begin our story in ancient Egypt with the pharaohs. The early tax collectors in Egypt were called scribes, and they collected what was called a tribute (some form of payment to the house of the pharaoh). The tribute could be collected on anything, such as wheat. In the Bible’s book of Genesis, farmers had to give the pharaoh one-fifth of their crops.1 The scribes not only collected the tribute (taxes) but also served as ancient IRS agents, conducting household audits to be sure that the citizens were adhering to the tax laws. Possibly the first act of tax avoidance was when Egyptians avoided the tax on cooking oil by recycling the oil they had. Greece Greece was a nation that had lots of wars. As a result, they needed to finance those wars, and they did so with taxes. Their tax was known as an eisphora. One unique feature of the early Greek tax system was their abil- ity to cancel a tax once the war was over, when the tax money was not needed. In fact, if they collected too much tax money, they would return the surplus funds back to the citizens. Another tax the Greeks imposed was a tax on visitors to Athens, known as the metoikion. Foreigners who did not have two parents from Athens were charged a poll tax (unit tax). Men were charged one drachma (Greek currency) and women, one-half drachma. Roman Empire The Roman Empire was the first of the earliest civilizations to impose a tax (custom duty or tariff) on both imports to the empire and exports from the empire. These were known as portoria. Roman emperors also insti- tuted an inheritance tax to support the military (Emperor Caesar Augus- tus) and a sales tax (Julius Caesar). Among the Roman emperors, Caesar Augustus was considered the most perceptive at tax strategy. Besides the inheritance tax, he eliminated tax col- lection at the national level and passed the responsibility down to the cities. Matthew, the biblical tax collector under Caesar Augustus, was a local gov- ernment tax collector for Rome. Julius Caesar’s sales tax was highest on slaves (4 percent). It was 1 percent for buying other goods and services. The Church, Mosque, and Synagogue As the Roman Empire began to fall, the power, influence, and “taxes” of the people shifted to religious institutions. Both the Bible and Qu’ran make