Bricked-Up Windows (#167)

Have you ever wondered, why some houses have windows, which are bricked up like walls? You’ll never get this.

It’s about tax evasion. Yep.

Taxes are a controversial issue and have always been (remember fact #119?). But what if I told you, you had to pay taxes per window in your house? This was the case in 17th century England and France. Back then – just as today – people felt uncomfortable when they had to disclose their income or wealth to the government. In order to collect taxes, the government had to find something, that correlated with the wealth of a person.

That’s why they introduced the window tax. Basically, the more windows your house had, the wealthier you were. Up to ten windows were free, after that, you had to pay additional taxes.

And as nowadays, people tried to avoid taxes the best they could and got inventive. The solution: brick-up the windows. No window, no tax. I mean, who needs sunlight and fresh air when you can have money, right?