poll tax

English

Receipt for payment of US poll tax (voting).

Etymology

From sense poll (“head”) for “uniform tax per individual”; from sense poll (“voting place”) for “tax required to vote”.

Noun

poll tax (plural poll taxes)

1. A tax determined as a uniform, fixed amount per individual.
2. (US) A tax that must be paid in order to vote.

Usage notes

• In the US, generally used today to refer to taxes that must be paid in order to vote, with high risk of confusion if used for “head tax”. Further, the term has strong negative connotations, due to these taxes discriminating against blacks – see Jim Crow laws.
• In the UK, the term was used for the tax levied in England which lead to the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. It was then applied to the Community Charge, a tax for local government services that was abolished in 1993.

Alternative forms

• poll-tax

Synonyms

(uniform tax per person):

• capitation
• head money
• head tax

Translations

uniform tax per individual

• Bulgarian: поголовен данък m (pogoloven danǎk)
• Catalan: capitació f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 人頭稅／人头税 (zh) (réntóushuì)

• Danish: kopskat c (historical)
• Dutch: personele belasting
• Finnish: henkiraha, henkivero
• French: capitation (fr) f
• German: Kopfsteuer (de) f, Gemeindesteuer (de) f
• Greek: χαράτσι (el) n (charátsi)
• Hungarian: fejadó (hu)
• Irish: ceannairgead m
• Italian: capitazione f
• Polish: podatek pogłówny m
• Portuguese: capitação (pt) f
• Spanish: impuesto de capitación, impuesto electoral, capitación (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Tamil: ^{(please verify)} வரி (ta) (vari) (vari) (vaaku vari), ^{(please verify)} ajith (தலைவரி, thalai vari)