Poll Tax

If you were to think of the most unpopular taxes of all time, poll tax would be fairly high on the list. Officially known as the community charge, it was proposed in the UK in 1989 as a way of charging individuals to fund their community services. The cumbersome administrative system would have caused multiple problems, like students being able to move house without paying and so leaving a payments hole. The population of the UK were so enraged by what they saw as an unfair tax that riots broke out. The most notorious was in Trafalgar Square on March 31st 1990 (pictured above) and government ministers rapidly rethought the introduction of the tax. But the prime minister at the time – Margaret Thatcher – was famously “not for turning” and refused to back down. So she was eventually ousted and all her potential successors vowed to block the tax, John Major finally abolishing the tax the following year.