Draft:45 cent tax

The 45 cent tax was a temporary exceptional tax (limited to the year 1848) created on March 17 by the Provisional Government after the 1848 Revolution. It was intended to deal with the cash flow difficulties encountered by this government. Indeed, the right to work, a central demand of the Revolution of 1848, requires the establishment of national workshops and social workshops, which are set up by the Luxembourg commission, under the direction of Louis Blanc.

In effect, this meant a 45% tax on the fourContributions directes (land, furniture, doors and windows, license). The 45 cent tax, which was highly unpopular, detached a large part of the peasants from the nascent Republic at the time of the elections to the National Assembly. The government granted relief for small taxpayers and was careful not to demand collection until the elections. It was only after the elections of April 23 that resistance grew. The failure of General Louis Eugène Cavaignac in the presidential election of 1848 is partly due to the fact that the Republican government, over which he presided between June and December 1848, did not abolish this tax and firmly demanded its collection, with help from the army (so-called “garnissaire” soldiers).