Taxes

Workers paid taxes, and loopholes in the taxation system did not exist as they do today. For example, farmers paid their taxes by working the fields and pasturelands owned by the state. One-third of the crop was the ayllu’s to keep. Another third, placed in storehouses for distribution in case of drought or famine, was the property of the sapa inca. The last third belonged to the priests and religious groups, and was used to feed the people at religious events and for sacrifices to the gods. Other occupations paid tax in a similar way, keeping only one-third of their production.

The Incas did not use currency of any kind, and all transactions used the barter system. Among the most highly valued products was cloth. Every

Woman spun cotton or wool into thread and wove cloth in her free time. Cloth could also be used to pay taxes and were stored in government warehouses for clothing the poor or the military.

Louse Tax

Cronista Garcilaso de la Vega explained the Inca taxation system in The Incas: Royal Commentaries (translated by Alain Gheerbrant):

In the richer provinces, shoes were made out of a vegetable raw material derived from agave plants. In the same way, weapons came from different regions, according to the various materials that entered into their making. One province furnished bows and arrows, and another lances, javelins, hatchets, and bludgeons. . . .

Thus, the Inca's vassals furnished him with four types of statute labor: they tilled his land, spun and wove his wool and cotton, and manufactured shoes and weapons for his troops.

We shall add to these the special tribute that, every year, the poor and disinherited paid to the governors of the territory that they lived in; which consisted of a tube filled with lice.

The Incas said that this token tribute was intended to show that everyone, no matter what his station owed something to the State, in exchange for the benefits he received from it.

The government was socialist in all regards. Everyone worked, even children and elderly, to the best of their abilities. However, those unable to work were fed, housed, and clothed at the sapa inca’s expense.

In addition to a share of crops or goods produced, all adult males provided terms of social service, called mit’as, to the government. A farmer, for example, might provide two weeks service in the army, building roads or digging in the mines. While he was gone, the other members of his ayllu worked his fields and made sure his family was fed. Often, if the mit’a duty was mining or construction, the worker could bring his wife and family. Through the mit’a, the Incas built paved roads, canals, bridges, and agricultural terraces. Mit’a labor supported the irrigation program, dug gold and silver from mines, and constructed government storehouses.