Taxation lies at the guts of the relationship between the state dry its subjects and is intertwined with accounting. Its design is informed by implementation and its accounting creates new accounting for the state and the topic. The point of this paper is to look at a selected incarnation of taxation – the imperial stamp duty imposed by the Brit Parliament on the North American colonies temporarily from 1765 to 1766, the passing of which is known as the “Stamp Act crisis.” The version of stamp duty imposed on the colonies bore powerful similarity to that in operation in Great Britain with some alterations to accommodate colonial conditions. Continue reading →