FUN TAX FACT FRIDAY
England & Russia use to Tax Facial Hair
Beards are back in vogue, but there were times when having a beard was costly. During the 16th century, King Henry VIII imposed a tax on beards that increased with the wearer’s social status. Eventually, the tax was dropped, but his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, reintroduced a beard tax on anyone with more than two weeks’ worth of growth. In Russia, Peter the Great wanted to Westernize the country & required every man, except peasants & clergy, to buy a “beard token” to prove they had paid up.
The tax lasted from 1698 to 1772.
