Wallpaper tax
Encyclopedia
The wallpaper tax was introduced in Great Britain in 1712, during the reign of Queen Anne
. Patterned, printed, or painted wallpaper was initially taxed at 1d
per square yard
, rising to 1s
(£ as of ), by 1809. The tax was bypassed by purchasing untaxed plain paper and having it hand stencil
ed. The tax was abolished in 1836.
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
. Patterned, printed, or painted wallpaper was initially taxed at 1d
Penny (British pre-decimal coin)
The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....
per square yard
Square yard
The square yard is an imperial/US customary unit of area, formerly used in most of the English-speaking world but now generally replaced by the square metre outside of the U.S., Canada and the U.K. It is defined as the area of a square with sides of one yard in length...
, rising to 1s
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
(£ as of ), by 1809. The tax was bypassed by purchasing untaxed plain paper and having it hand stencil
Stencil
A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...
ed. The tax was abolished in 1836.