Common Penny Tax

Type Object Region Holy Roman Empire Time 1495–1505

The Common Penny (Gemeiner Pfennig) was an imperial direct tax passed by the 1495 Diet of Worms, levied on subjects over fifteen by property and stat…

Timeline

1495Worms · WormsOn August 7, 1495, the Diet of Worms passed the Common Penny ordinance, alongside the Perpetual Peace and the Imperial Chamber Court. The tax was levied on imperial subjects over fifteen, progressive by property and status, with revenue earmarked for defense against the Ottomans and France and for funding the new court.
1495–1499Holy Roman Empire · Holy Roman EmpireCollection was entrusted to the imperial estates and local authorities, lacking uniform tax collectors. Many subjects and territories evaded payment, and actual sums reaching the imperial treasurer fell far below budget; surviving tax rolls are valuable for grassroots social history, but as fiscal policy the tax had already failed.
1500–1505Holy Roman Empire · Holy Roman EmpireFacing continued tax resistance and insufficient imperial administrative capacity, the Common Penny was explicitly abandoned in 1505. Thereafter imperial military expenses relied mainly on the roster system (Kammerzieler / Roman Months) apportioned among the estates, bringing the direct state tax experiment to an end.

Sources

Common Penny https://www.britannica.com/topic/Common-Penny
Imperial Reform (1495) https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/from-the-reformations-to-the-thirty-years-war-1500-1648/imperial-reform-1495
Der gemeine Pfennig von 1495 — Peter Schmid (1989)