Cess payers

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Was it only the gentry who had to pay a cess (a local tax used used for public works)? How was the amount decided?
Thanks.

pedroeibar1

Good question. I have a kinsman who in the late 1700’s “ Mr XX YY did applot the cess" and I never fully understood what it involved. Primarily Cess was a British tax concept and while now defunct in the UK it has lived on in former colonies such as India and Singapore. It is a tax calculated on other tax paid, such as income tax, rates or stamp duty. For example, a local tax (rates) on your property amounts to £500 and if cess tax levied at a rate of 5% you would incur a further £25 as a cess tax. My understanding is that it is - as you say - a local tax, but it was not confined to public works, as there are references for it being used to support a garrison.

Regarding payment only by the ‘gentry’ I’d infer that only they had enough income to be liable for payment of taxes in 18thC Ireland, which was an era when there was no income tax, so State revenue had to be obtained by other means Further clarification from others welcome!

Fratton Fred

Sounds like a form of daylight robbery to me

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Thanks for the replies and, yes, further clarification from others would be most welcome.

Peregrinus

The word "cess" is derived from "assess", and it originally referred to a tax which was calculated on the value or monetary amount of something. It may seem obvious to us that taxes are generally calculated on value or amount - income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax, capital acquisitions tax, VAT are all calculated as a percentage of the value of the thing taxed - but this wasn't always so. Some of our older taxes still aren't - e.g. excise is calculated at so much per litre of spirits, or per cigarette, many stamp duties were not related to value and some still are not (there's a flat rate stamp duty on credit cards, for example, and there used to be one on cheques). So when taxes ad valorem were introduced, they were distinctive, and the word "cess" was coined to name them, since they were an assessment - somebody had to assess or estimate the value of the thing to be taxed, so that the amount of the tax could be computed.

For a long time, in Ireland, the word predominantly referred to a tax levied by grand juries (the forerunners of county councils) on the value of land within the local government area. This was tax was officially called the cess, or the land cess, until the term was replaced by "rates" in, I think, 1898.

who the fug

Is this were the phrase Bad cess to you comes from

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As far as I know, yes.

CeannRua

The county cess was paid to support the work of the Grand Jury. This might have changed over time as the Grand Jury was a long existing body but by the mid 19th century at least it was paid by land occupiers and it was inclusive of very many people (but not all). Amount payable was decided by valuation of property and the reason Griffith's Valuation was done at this time was to have uniform valuation of property. You should find more info by googling but the correct answer may depend on what time period you're interested in.

@pedroeibar - do you have a reference for the cess being used to finance garrisons in Ireland?

Peregrinus

who the fug wrote: »

Is this were the phrase Bad cess to you comes from

Probably not. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology of "bad cess" in the sense of "bad luck" is uncertain, but two possibilities are suggested. It may be from a now obsolete sense of "cess" meaning "death" (a short version of "decease") which was current in the fifteenth century. Alternatively, it may be derived from "success", as in "may you have little success in your endeavours".

"Bad cess" is found only in Ireland.

Peregrinus

CeannRua wrote: »

@pedroeibar - do you have a reference for the cess being used to finance garrisons in Ireland?

The OED has several instances of the word in this sense from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The word embraced both a formal system whereby merchants were required to sell a set quantity of produce, at a fixed (and very low) price, to the government for the support of the army, and the rather less formal practice by which the army simply took whatever provisions they needed from the inhabitants of whatever district they happened to be quartered in.

Again, this is a uniquely Irish sense of "cess".

pedroeibar1

CeannRua wrote: »

@pedroeibar - do you have a reference for the cess being used to finance garrisons in Ireland?

Sorry CeannRua, I don't - I got the cess quote and notes from a US contact with whom I share info on our family surname - he came across the quote in a parish record and simply passed it on to me to see if I could place the individual. I never followed up on the cess bit in detail as I know that the individual is distant from my family line.