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The grossest tax in the Roman Empire

The Roman Empire taxed urine.

World History

I n ancient Rome, you didn't have to pay a tax to pee, but for a while, you did have to pay a tax to use urine commercially. The fluid is rich in ammonia, a caustic substance that's sold in many cleaning solutions and even fertilizers today. Roman launderers used aged urine to clean clothes and dye fabrics, and tanners used it to loosen flesh from animal hides. Some people even used it as toothpaste. It sounds strange, but at the time, collecting human urine was a common practice in order to take advantage of its cleaning properties. Aware of its wide applications, one Roman emperor, Vespasian, even taxed the stuff. Vespasian, who ruled from 69 to 79 CE and was known for implementing and increasing taxes, decided to impose vectigal urinae (literally: urine tax) on urine that was taken from public restrooms.

Many ancient Romans thought this income stream was, understandably, pretty gross, including Vespasian's own son Titus. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, Titus once chastised his dad for profiting off excessive taxes such as urine, and in response, Vespasian placed a coin over his son's nose and asked if it stunk. Titus replied that it didn't, and Vespasian responded, "Yet it comes from urine." In fact, Vespasian's urine tax is the origin of the Latin phrase pecunia non olet, or "money doesn't stink" — meaning that dirty money is still money.

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By the Numbers

U.S. states without any income tax

Flat rate of ancient Roman sales tax under Julius Caesar

Did you know?

Peter the Great taxed beards in Russia.

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Tsar Peter I, also known as Peter the Great, was on a mission to modernize Russia. After noticing many clean-shaven men during his travels through Western Europe, he decided that his countrymen should follow suit, and even went so far as to personally shave the beards off the guests of a party held in his honor. He originally tried to ban beards outright, but the policy was massively unpopular, especially since clean shaves were considered blasphemous in the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead, Peter imposed a beard tax of 100 rubles or more for noblemen and merchants, and as low as 1 kopek (or 1% of a ruble) for commoners. Those who paid the tax were given a medal inscribed with the phrase "the beard is a useless burden" as proof. Still, the tax caused a lot of tension between the church and state in Russia, and even caused a rebellion among one military division, though the revolt was swiftly crushed.