* Blame Napolian. Income tax was introduced in 1799 by long-serving Prime Minister William Pitt as a contemporary tax to pay for the war against france.
* The tax remains "temporary". It expires each year on April 5 and was even repealed after the Battle of Waterloo.
* Sir Robert Peel, who had vigorously opposed the tax, brought it back in 1842. It affected incomes above £150.
* Benjamin Disraeli was Chancellor three times; his great rival, William Gladstone, held the office on four occations. Income tax survived despite both men promising its abolition.
* After the Liberal landslide in 1905, income tax came to be viewed as a means of paying for a nascent welfare state rather than as a vehicle for meeting the costs of wars.
* At the start of the First World War the standard rate of the tax was 6 per cent. At its end it was 30 per cent.
* After 50 sittings and examining 200 witnesses, a Royal Commission, set up in 1920, concluded that "as it was in 1842, so its essential features should it remain".
* The growing number of taxpayers during the Second World War led to the need for a more efficient tax collection and Pay as You Earn was introduced in 1944.
* In 1965 James Callaghan introduced corporation tax on company profits and capital gains tax on long-term gains.
* The Queen agreed in 1992 to pay tax on her income.
* Self-assesment was introduced for the tax year 1996/97 with more complex tax affairs.