The tax man cometh.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, the reason Mary and Joseph found themselves in Bethlehem was that a decree had gone out from Caesar Augustus that "all the world should be taxed". But as mentioned, this was almost certainly nothing (at least directly) to do with the payment of money, but was simply a census. "To tax" originally meant no more than to enquire into, to assess. As this process became more and more often an enquiry into your means, with a view as to how much money could be screwed out of you, the word "tax" started to take on the meaning of the payment rather than the enquiry. We do talk about something being "taxing" when we mean it involves a lot of thought, rather than expense, but the one area where the word is still used in its original meaning is that of professional charges - particularly solicitors' charges. If you wish to challenge the amount a solicitor is charging you, you can (for a fee!) require him to provide a detailed "bill of costs" which will then go before an independent expert for "taxation" - that is each item in turn will be examined and enquired into to decide whether or not it is proper and allowable.