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Atax collector (also called ataxman) is a person who collects unpaidtaxes from other people or corporations on behalf of agovernment. The term could also be applied to those whoaudittax returns or work for arevenue agency. Tax collectors are often portrayed negatively, and in the modern world share a similar stereotype to that oflawyers.^{[citation needed]}

Historically taxes were collected directly by theKing or ruler of aState. As states and administrative regions grew larger this task was outsourced toaristocrats or dedicated tax collectors.

In theRoman Republic,taxes were collected from individuals based on the value of their total property. However, since it was extremely difficult to facilitate the collection of the tax, the government auctioned the collection of taxes every year. The winningtax farmers (calledpublicani) paid the tax revenue to the government in advance and then kept the taxes collected from individuals. The publicani paid the tax revenue in coins, but collected the taxes using other exchange media, thus relieving the government of the work to carry out the currency conversion themselves.^[1]

Tax collectors, also known aspublicans, are mentioned many times inthe Bible (mainly in theNew Testament). They were reviled by the Jews of Jesus' day because of their perceived greed and collaboration with theRoman occupiers. Tax collectors amassed personal wealth by demanding tax payments in excess of what Rome levied and keeping the difference.^[2] They worked fortax farmers. In theGospel of Luke,Jesus sympathizes with the tax collectorZacchaeus, causing outrage from the crowds that Jesus would rather be the guest of a sinner than of a more respectable or "righteous" person.Matthew the Apostle in the New Testament was a tax collector.^[3]

• Simon Affleck - Was a Swedish tax official who worked in then Swedish-ruled Finland. Affleck is said to have been a ruthless collector of taxes with little pity towards the poor Finnish peasants. He is said to have shot himself in the head in his mansion to deny the Finnish peasants raiding his mansion the satisfaction of killing him.
• Jacob Gaón - A Jewish Basque tax collector that in 1463, went to the province of Guipúzcoa in Spain and reclaimed a tax called pedido to the inhabitants of the villa of Tolosa. They refused, arguing they had an exemption from paying these tributes, according to fueros and laws passed by the previous kings. Gaón menaced them, and several Tolosans killed him, cut his head off and hung it up on the top of a pillory, as a punishment.
• Antoine Lavoisier - AFrench nobleman and chemist who at the age of 26 bought a share in theFerme générale, a tax farming financial company which advanced the estimated tax revenue to the royal government in return for the right to collect the taxes. Lavoisier was later convicted age 50 of tax fraud and executed at theguillotine.
• John the Cappadocian - A Roman Praetorian Prefect of the East who served under Emperor Justinian and had worked previously for his predecessor Emperor Justin. He helped to raise new taxes, but this eventually resulted in theNika Riots in Constantinople. He fell from Justinian's grace, in part due to rivalries with other court officials and aristocrats and was stripped of his authority and exiled.

In modern times, collection is done by a dedicated governmenttax collection agency known as a revenue services, a revenue agency or a taxation authority.

• Catchpole
• District magistrate
• Privatized tax collection

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTax collectors in art.

Wikiquote has quotations related toTax collector.

• Yancey, Richard (March 17, 2009).Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS. New York, New York:Zondervan,HarperCollins.ISBN 9780061740756.tax collector.

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• Tax occupations

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