Tax on childlessness

As originally passed and enforced from 1941 to 1990, the tax affected most childless men from 25 to 50 years of age, and most childless married women from 20 to 45 years of age. The tax was 6% of the childless person's wages, but it provided certain exceptions: those with children that died during World War II did not have to pay the tax, nor did war heroes that received certain awards. Also, many students were able to obtain an exemption from the tax, as did people who earned less than 70 rubles a month. Furthermore, those who were medically incapable to give birth were also exempt to this tax, and many single men fraudulently escaped the tax by claiming infertility and provided fake medical documentation.[1]

After 1990, the income exemption was increased to 150 rubles, meaning that the first 150 rubles of income for childless adults went untaxed.[3] In 1991, the tax was changed to no longer apply to women, and in 1992, it was rendered irrelevant and inactive due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the 16th century, "bykowe" referred to a fee paid by the owner of a bull for mating cows. Later, during the 16th and 17th centuries, it also denoted a penalty for fathering an illegitimate child. At the beginning of the 20th century, dictionaries also recorded "bykowe" as meaning "a gift to a shepherd for raising a cow" and "a fee paid to musicians at a wedding by someone who wants to dance with the bride".

In 1946, communist Poland introduced a similar increase of the basic income tax rate, in effect a tax on childlessness, popularly called bykowe in Polish ("bull's tax", the "bull" being a metonymy for an unmarried man). First, childless and unmarried people over 21 years of age were affected (from January 1, 1946 until November 29, 1956), then only over 25 years of age (November 30, 1956 until January 1, 1973).[4]

Taxes on childlessness were part of the natalist policy introduced by Nicolae Ceaușescu in Communist Romania in the period 1967–1989. Along with the outlawing of abortion and contraception (1967) and mandatory gynecological revisions, these taxes were introduced in various forms in 1977 and 1986. Unmarried citizens had to pay penalty for childlessness, the tax income rate being increased by 8-10% for them.[5][6]

During the Soviet Union, Russia had a higher fertility rate than it did in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, prompting some Russian leaders to propose bringing back the tax on childlessness.[2] According to the Health Ministry, the total fertility rate dropped from 2.19 children/woman to 1.17 children/woman in the aftermath of the Soviet Union. According to the Russian Director of the Center for Demography Anatoliy Vishnevskiy, this birth rate is among the lowest in the world, and Russian leaders have described the demographic issues in Russia as being symptomatic of a "crisis".

While the tax on childlessness has not been re-enacted, other proposals have been. For example, Vladimir Putin enacted a proposal to provide cash incentives for women who are willing to have a second child.[7]

In 2018, a childless tax was proposed in China to counter their own birth rate issues.[8][9]

In Germany, Minister for Health Jens Spahn called for childless tax, saying that those without children should pay much more towards care and pension insurance than those who have started a family.[10]