Tax on childlessness
The tax on childlessness are taxes on childless adults.
Higher pension contributions for voluntarily childless people can balance pension funding.
Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union a tax on childlessness was a natalist policy imposed starting in the 1940s. Joseph Stalin's regime created the tax in order to encourage adult people to reproduce, thus increasing the number of people and the population of the Soviet Union. The 6% income tax affected men from the age of 25 to 50, and married women from 20 to 45 years of age. The tax remained in place until the collapse of the Soviet Union, though by the end of the Soviet Union, the amount of money which could be taxed was steadily reduced.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 of giving birth were also exempt from the tax, and many single men fraudulently escaped the tax by claiming infertility and provided fake medical documentation.
From 1946, the tax was abolished for monks obliged to observe a vow of celibacy in accordance with the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 2584 of December 3, 1946:
"Monks and nuns of Orthodox monasteries and monasteries of other faiths, obligated to a vow of celibacy, are not subject to taxation on bachelors, single and small-family citizens of the USSR".
After 1990, the income exemption was increased to 150 rubles, meaning that the first 150 rubles of income for childless adults went untaxed. 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.
China
In 2018, a childless tax was proposed in China to counter their own birth rate issues.Germany
In 2018, Germany's Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, called for a childlessness tax, arguing that those without children should pay much more toward care and pension insurance than those who have started a family.Hungary
In 1953, communist Hungary introduced Taxes on childlessness which was payable by men between the ages of 20 and 50 and women between the ages of 20 and 45 who already had an income but did not yet have children. The tax covered 4% of the tax base. The tax was abolished in 1957.Poland
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. First, childless and unmarried people over 21 years of age were affected, then only over 25 years of age.