What was the Window Tax?

Although it might seem ridiculous today, there was a time in England when people were taxed for having windows in their home! This week iGlaze takes a look at the historic window tax.

The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house or building. It was introduced in England and Wales in 1696 and remained in force for 156 years, until 1851. The tax was introduced under King William III as a means to make up for lost income from clipped money – where people cut off small portions of coins to melt down to make more money. There was also a window tax enforced in Scotland and France around the same time.

In the 1600s, glass was an expensive commodity, and it was generally believed that the more windows a house had, the wealthier the owners were. The window tax was designed to impose tax relative to the wealth of the taxpayer. This was in a time before income tax was introduced, so the window tax might be seen as an early and simplified version – based on window numbers rather than income! It’s much easier to count the windows on a person’s house than it is to find out how much they earn.

The window tax had two parts: a flat-rate house tax of two shillings per house, and a variable tax for the number of windows over ten for each house. Properties with ten to 20 windows paid an extra four shillings, and any with over twenty windows paid an extra eight shillings. There was a top rate of 20 shillings for houses with 30 or more windows.

Some people were exempt from paying the window tax for reasons of poverty, and certain buildings such as dairies, cheese rooms and milk houses were exempt too as long as they were clearly labelled.

The window tax was unpopular with many, as it was seen as ‘a tax on light and air.’ Many windows were blocked up with bricks or boards in order to avoid paying the window tax. Some old buildings still show the signs of the window tax, where bricked up windows were never replaced.

It was noted as early as 1718 that there was a decline in revenue raised by the tax as a result of windows being blocked up. New homes were also seen to be being built with fewer windows. In 1851 it was found that the production of glass had remained almost the same since 1810, despite the large increase in population and increased building of new houses.

As the industrial revolution swept Britain, medical professionals and well-educated people began to complain that the window tax was increasing the risk of epidemics in crowded and unsanitary properties. The lack of windows led to dark, damp tenement houses which spread disease and ill-health among the working class. The campaigners finally succeeded in lifting the tax in 1851, when it was replaced with a house tax instead.