Author(s): Paul Goldsmith

NZ Non Fiction

We Won, You Lost. Eat That! takes readers through our tax history, from the first customs tariff imposed in 1840 to the Dog Tax War of 1898, from the poll tax on Chinese migrants that was sharply increased by the Liberals in the 1890s to the 90 per cent top marginal income tax rate that confronted the most highly paid during the Second World War. As politicians struggle with the temptations that the power of taxation dangles before them and taxpayers respond to frequent changes in methods and levels of taxation, the battles have been fiercely fought. Auckland biographer and historian Paul Goldsmith shows in this fast paced book that our tax history is full of drama and controversy. First published May 2008.