![\"Mesopotamian](\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/mesopotamian-coins.jpg\")
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It\u2019s the end of the financial year \u2013 and if you\u2019re in business, time to work out your end of year figures.<\/p>\n
You won\u2019t need to get your tax return in just yet \u2013 but eventually the taxman will need to know how much money you\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n
If you hate paying income tax (most people do) then spare a thought for the ancient Mesopotamians, who didn\u2019t have money as we know it today.<\/p>\n
As there were no coins of the realm, ancient households had to pay their taxes in kind.<\/p>\n
Almost everything the family owned was taxed, and that included any fishing boats they owned, and livestock. But the hardest part of the tax burden was the household\u2019s labour obligation.<\/p>\n
The head of the house usually owed the government many months of labour service. This could be harvesting barley fields or digging the silt out of canals, if you were lucky.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, you could be conscripted to serve in a war abroad, and might never make it back home. If you ran away, your land and livelihood could be confiscated.<\/p>\n
That puts our tax authorities in perspective!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the end of the financial year \u2013 and if you\u2019re in business, time to work out your end of year figures. You won\u2019t need to get your tax return in just yet \u2013 but eventually the taxman will need to know how much money you\u2019ve made. If you hate paying income tax (most people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-office-life"],"yoast_head":"\n