Tax Records Online

Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
-- Benjamin Franklin

Just as we dread paying taxes, so too did our ancestors. The good thing for us is that with taxes comes paperwork that can assist you in researching your ancestors. While these lists aren't going to provide you with a lot of detailed information, it will place your ancestor in a certain place in time, thus making it easier to find other documents.

To learn more about the history of American taxation, check out the Tax History Project, http://www.taxhistory.org/. This web site includes a virtual museum of tax history covering the years 1660 to present day. Besides tax history you can also peruse the tax returns of the current President and Vice-President of the United States as well as some previous Presidents.
If you are curious about where your tax dollars go, see the graph at http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/ . This provides a visual representation of where our tax dollars are spent by the federal government.

In general, when looking for tax lists consult the Family History Library catalog at www.familysearch.org, the state library or archive, U. S. Genweb, www.usgenweb.com, county sites and other large genealogical databases. The web site Census Finder at http://www.censusfinder.com/, is not only an index of free web sites that include the U. S. Federal census but also sites that feature other types of name lists including tax lists.
The following is a "partial" list of the tax records you can find on the Internet.

Arkansas
1836, 1840-1847, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1907, 1911, 1926 Saline County http://www.rootsweb.com/~arsaline/taxes.html

Colorado
1913-1942 Logan County http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/inh_tax/logan/
1920-1943 Moffat County http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/inh_tax/1moffat_inh_tax.htm

Illinois
1891 Williamson County http://www.thewchs.com/archives/wchs_sourthn.htm

Iowa
1847-1850 Louisa County http://www.rootsweb.com/~ialcgs/taxes.htm

Kentucky
1799 Henderson County http://members.aol.com/patander73/h1799tax.html 1823 Lawrence County http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~churn/taxlist.html

Maryland
1798-1808 Baltimore Tax Index, www.ancestry.com

Minnesota
1905 Clay County http://www.rootsweb.com/~nccumber/1815taxables.htm

New York
1800 Erie County http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyerie/buffalo/tax1800.htm
1818 Essex County http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyessex/cp1818.htm
1835 Essex County http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyessex/crownp.htm
1872 Essex County http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyessex/cp1872.htm

North Carolina
1759 Rowan County http://www.fmoran.com/1759.html
1780 Montgomery County http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncmontgo/tax.htm#1780
1779 Montgomery County http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncmontgo/tax.htm#1779
1786 Surry County http://www.fmoran.com/1786.html and http://www.fmoran.com/1786a.html
1815 Cumberland County http://www.rootsweb.com/~nccumber/1815taxables.htm
Various years, Perquimans County http://perqtax.homestead.com/

Ohio
1811-1816 Belmont County http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~saharmon/

Pennsylvania
1734 Philadelphia County http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/berks/taxlist/tax1734.txt
1753 Lancaster County http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/berks/taxlist/1753heid.txt

Tennessee
1787-1872 Sumner County http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnsumner/sumnlist.htm

Texas
1839 Houston http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/harris/taxlists/taxlist.txt

Virginia
1780 New Kent County http://www.rootsweb.com/~vanewken/nktax1782.html
1798 City of Fredericksburg http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/Fredericksburg/pptax/fburgpp1798.htm
1813 City of Fredericksburg http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/Fredericksburg/pptax/fburgpp1813.htm
1815 City of Fredericksburg http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/Fredericksburg/pptax/fburgpp1815.htm

West Virginia
1802-1822 Wood County Tax Lists http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvwood/taxlists.htm
1840 Kanawha County http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvkanawh/Tax/index.html