In a message dated 13/04/2007 13:59:01 GMT Daylight Time, Carolgriff writes: So am I right in thinking that if my family occupied a dwelling then they would pay rent to a landlord and then also 2 shillings window tax to the tax man, unless they boarded the windows up and so lived in dark rooms with no fresh air, but only had to pay rent and no tax. ________________________________________________________________ I assume that there would be an incentive to brick up windows or build houses with fewer windows. However from 1823 houses with not more than seven windows were exempt, thus it did not concern the smaller poorer houses. The sort of house which had been affected most severely by the tax was probably the larger, older house, multi-occupied by the poor. As far as I am aware the tax was included in the rent and the tax was paid by the landlord. Apparently in many cases the rent was not reduced by the amount of tax abolished. >From the 1850s onwards, the laws went in the opposite direction by stipulating minimum sizes of windows for small rooms. Regards Stan Mapstone