The window tax was just one tax and, in the context of history, not a particularly long lived one, but it is a great example of how a tax comes into being and the consequences that follow. In its evolution we see the typical life cycle of a tax.

It is enacted at a time of need, usually to fund some kind of war. It is presented as temporary, but becomes permanent. The amount payable is low at first, but increases over time. It violates basic freedoms, in this case the right to light and fresh air. Many go to great lengths to avoid paying it, and it thus distorts how people behave and the decisions they make.

There are all sorts of unintended consequences, which get worse as the tax matures. Much of the money raised is wasted or spent in a way with which the taxpayer does not agree. Finally people have had enough, and there is some kind of movement a campaign, a protest, even a revolution to get rid of it, which government is slow and reluctant to do.

~ Daylight Robbery: How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future by Dominic Frisby.