An Act for removing all Doubts and Apprehensions concerning Taxation by the Parliament of Great Britain in any of the Colonies, Provinces, and Plantations in North America and the West Indies; and for repealing so much of an Act made in the Seventh Year of the Reign of His late Majesty as imposes a Duty on Tea imported from Great Britain into any Colony or Plantation in America as relates to there.
Citation
18 Geo. 3. c. 12
Territorial extent
British America and the British West Indies
Dates
Repealed
18 July 1973
Other legislation
Amends
Duties on Tea, etc. (American Plantations) Act 1766
Repealed by
Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
The Taxation of Colonies Act 1778 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that declared Parliament would not impose any duty, tax, or assessment for the raising of revenue in any of the colonies of British America or the British West Indies. The Act, passed during the American Revolutionary War, was an attempt by Parliament to end the war by conceding one of the early points of dispute.[2]
Parliament's effort to tax the colonies without the consent of the colonists, especially as enacted in the Townshend Acts of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773, had been a major cause of the American Revolution. This act noted that those taxes had "been found by experience to occasion great uneasiness and disorders"[3] and that his Majesty desired "to restore the peace and welfare of all his Majesty's Dominions".
The Act declared that Parliament would not impose any duty, tax, or assessment for the raising of revenue in any of the colonies. Parliament would only impose such duties as expedient to regulate commerce and the net income from these duties would be given to the colonies. In making this concession, Parliament was taking the position that American colonists had advocated a decade earlier, most notably John Dickinson in his 1767 and 1768 "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania".[2]
By the time the statute was enacted, it was too late to have any effect on the war: the dispute was no longer specifically about taxation, and the colonies had already declared independence. Additionally, according to legal historian John Phillip Reid, "As a matter of constitutional law the statute was meaningless",[citation needed] because future parliaments would not be bound by the current parliament's pledge not to impose taxes.
The Act was eventually repealed by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973 as obsolete.
^Short title as conferred by the Short Titles Act 1896, s. 1; the modern convention for the citation of short titles omits the comma after the word "Act".
^ abReid, Authority to Tax, 51.
^Houston, Documents, 104.
and 27 Related for: Taxation of Colonies Act 1778 information
eruption of the American War of Independence in April 1775. Parliament passed the TaxationofColoniesAct1778, which repealed a number of taxes (including...
except for the TaxationofColoniesAct1778 which was passed during the American Revolution. Even after the recognition of the independence of the United...
This is a list of British tariffs. 1764: Sugar Act 1765: Customs, etc. Act 1765 1767: Townshend Acts 1778: TaxationofColoniesAct1778 1815: Corn Laws...
refusal of parliamentarian John Hampden to pay ship money tax. In the context of British taxationof its American colonies, the slogan "No taxation without...
response to the failure of the Stamp Act 1765, which had provided the first form of direct taxation placed upon the colonies. However, the import duties...
imperial officers. The tax on tea was repealed with the TaxationofColoniesAct1778, part of another Parliamentary attempt at conciliation that failed...
Hill at the outset of the American Revolution. Issued on 23 August 1775, it declared elements of the American colonies in a state of "open and avowed rebellion"...
honest and well-meaning, but uninformed people in these colonies, have, by the art and address of ministerial agents, been deceived and drawn into erroneous...
attempted to raise money by direct taxation on the colonies for the first time. The act required that all sorts of printed material carry a stamp (purchased...
the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and...
mercantile purpose of the act was to make England the staple for all European products bound for the colonies, and to prevent the colonies from establishing...
Revolutionary War of 1775–1783 began in 1776 when the Kingdom of France secretly shipped supplies to the Continental Army of the Thirteen Colonies when it was...
control of the colonies' western lands over to the British officials in Montreal. Representatives from several colonies convened the Stamp Act Congress...
prisoner. The prospect of foreign German soldiers being used in the colonies bolstered support for independence, more so than taxation and other acts combined;...
complete list of acts of the Parliament of Great Britain for the year 1778. For acts passed until 1707, see the list of acts of the Parliament of England and...
United Colonies was the name used by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to describe the proto-state comprising the Thirteen Colonies in 1775...
"Taxation through the Looking Glass: The Mirror Theory and the Income Tax System of the U.S. Virgin Islands before and after the Tax Reform Actof 1986"...
Timeline of the American Revolution—timeline of the political upheaval culminating in the 18th century in which Thirteen Colonies in North America joined...
of Fort Stanwix. The Thirteen Colonies became increasingly divided between Patriots, opposed to parliamentary taxation without representation, and Loyalists...
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 states of the United States, formerly the Thirteen Colonies, that served...
many laws and taxes, such as the Sugar Act, the Intolerable Acts, Taxation without representation, and the Stamp Act. Many colonists were angry as they were...
bills of credit in his most famous work, The Wealth of Nations. Another Currency Act, in 1764, extended the restrictions to the colonies south of New England...
Trade between the colonies and Britain subsequently fell sharply. The British soon responded with the New England Restraining Act which escalated their...
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its...
demands of Funding Actof 1790 during the late 18th century. The colonial protests were necessitated by the enforcement of the Federalist taxation plan as...
Global Information