Economics for Kids - Taxation - Games, Activities, Free Use K-12 Lesson Plans for Teachers - FREE Lesson Plans, PowerPoints, Games, Activities (K-12)

For Kids

Today, taxes are mandatory payments collected from individuals and corporations by a government entity to fund government activity. Taxes help fund public works and services. Taxes are used to build and maintain the infrastructure of a country - the roads, the dams, the various projects that help us all. Taxes are collected via sales tax and income tax and paid to cities, states, and the central government. Individually, people vote for government representatives in county, state, and federal government to argue fair taxes for them.

One of the major causes of the American Revolution of 1776 was that the colonists had no voice in how they were taxed. England needed money. At the time, they were still in charge of the colonists. England issued The Stamp Act to get money. This act was extremely unpopular in the American colonies. The Stamp Act required colonists to buy and place stamps on paper goods such as newspapers, diplomas, contracts, prayer books, marriage licenses, and other legal documents. Laborers, craftsmen, farmers, lawyers, merchants, and basically everybody had to pay this tax. People could not afford it. Many people could not even afford to buy prayer books, which were essential to their way of life.

It gave colonial leaders a chance to convince the colonists that they were being taxed unfairly because the colonists had no voice in government - no taxation without representation! People were used to paying taxes. They understood the need for taxes. But up until then, each colony has its own system of taxation and its own system of collecting that tax, and the people voted on how this was done. The Stamp Act changed that.

Stamp Act Congress: As the uproar against the Stamp Act grew, colonial leaders created a special congress - a Stamp Act Congress. Individual colonies sent delegates to New York City to attend a meeting of this special congress. The delegates drew up a petition protesting the Stamp Act, giving their reasons, and demanding this law be repealed. They sent this petition, with Ben Franklin, to the British Parliament back in England.

This was very important. It clearly demonstrated that the colonies could and would speak with one voice. Ben Franklin convinced British Parliament to rescind (remove, repeal, delete) the Stamp Act. Things might have ended there. But England still needed money. They kept coming up with new taxes without any input from the colonists themselves. That ultimately led to a war called the American Revolution or The War of Independence. The colonists, against incredible odds, won! That led to the formation of the country we know today as the United States of America.