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Centesima rerum venalium was a 1% tax on goods sold at auction during the Roman empire.
In Ancient Rome, there were four primary kinds of taxation: a cattle tax, a land tax, customs, and a tax on the profits of any profession. These taxes were typically collected by local aristocrats. The Roman state would set a fixed amount of money each region needed to provide in taxes, and the local officials would decide who paid the taxes and how much they paid. Once collected the taxes would be used to fund the military, create public works, establish trade networks, stimulate the economy, and to fund the cursus publicum.
The Vicesima libertatis, also known as the Vicesima Manumissionum was an ancient Republican Roman tax on freed slaves. It is unclear how the tax was collected. One possibility is that, if the master freed the slave the government would tax the master for 5% of the slaves value, while if the slave freed themselves they would be taxed. Another possibility is that the tax was for registering a slave as free, not for freeing them in the first place. Evidence dating back to the Republic suggests that the collection of the tax was likely farmed out to the publicani. By the time of the empire, collection of the tax likely was controlled by the emperor themselves.
References
- ↑ Jane Gardner, "Nearest and Dearest: Liability to Inheritance Tax in Roman Families," in Childhood, Class and Kin in the Roman World pp. 205, 213.
- ↑ Gardner, "Liability to Inheritance Tax," pp. 205, 211.
- ↑ Gardner, "Liability to Inheritance Tax," p. 214; see further Bruce W. Frier and Thomas A.J. McGinn, A Casebook on Roman Family Law (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 19–20, and Beryl Rawson, "The Roman Family in Italy" (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 15–18.
- ↑ Gardner, "Liability to Inheritance Tax," p. 214.
- ↑ Cassius Dio 55.25.5.
- ↑ Gardner, "Liability to Inheritance Tax," p. 205.