Timeline
Events in Maine's taxation history

Sources: Maine Revenue Services, The Century Foundation, Maine State Museum and "History of the State of Maine," by William D. Williamson.

Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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Full Value Tax Rate: Valuations and rates for all municipalities
Income Tax Revenue: Comparing individual and corporate collections
Comparing Maine: How the state ranks

1639: Fernando Gorges receives charter to Province of Maine and taxes settlers
1650-1674: Massachusetts levies property taxes on Mainers to support Colonial government, towns levy taxes to build roads, maintain militias and hire ministers
1675-1712: Indian wars wipe out most Maine settlements
1714: Settlements revive and taxing resumes
1765: British Parliament passes Stamp Act, heavily taxing Colonial legal/business documents
1766: Colonial Congress repeals Stamp Act, church bells ring in Falmouth (today’s Portland)
1775: British ships bomb and burn Falmouth for supporting Colonial tax revolt
1776-1783: American Revolution
1783: Massachusetts Legislature imposes 5-cent tax on imported items
1784: Mainers in outlying areas avoid incorporating as towns to avoid paying taxes
1798: Congress taxes business documents and levies $2: million property tax for U.S. defense
1820: Maine separates from Massachusetts on March 3 and becomes 23^rd state
1821: Maine Legislature imposes $6 license fee to sell liquor
1845: Legislature adopts general taxation of all real and personal property
1851: Maine outlaws manufacture and sale of alcohol until 1934
1876: Legislature amends Constitution to maintain permanent power of taxation
1894: Congress enacts federal individual income tax
1895: Supreme Court declares individual income tax unconstitutional
1909: Congress enacts first permanent federal corporate income tax
1913: Congress passes 16^th Amendment to allow individual income tax, which President Woodrow Wilson then signs into law. More than 90 percent of Americans remained exempt until personal incomes started to rise after World War II.
1931: Maine establishes Bureau of Taxation with reorganization of state government
1934: State imposes consumption tax on liquor
1951: State sales tax starts at 2 percent
1957: State sales tax increases to 3 percent
1959: State expands sales tax to hotel/motel rentals
1963: State sales tax increases to 4 percent
1965: State expands sales tax to telephone service
1968: State sales tax increases to 4.5 percent
1969: State adopts individual and corporate income taxes
1969:State sales tax increases to 5 percent
1971: Referendum fails to repeal state income tax by 3-to-1: vote
1977: Citizens repeal uniform state property tax
1977: State expands sales tax to short-term car rentals
1982: Citizens pass referendum to adjust income tax for inflation
1985: State expands sales tax to cable TV service
1984: State adds sales tax to liquor
1986: State sales tax on hotel/motel and short-term car rentals increases to 7 percent
1986: State expands sales tax to fabrication services and custom computer programming
1989: State expands sales tax to video tape and equipment rentals
1989: State sales tax on liquor sales at restaurants and bars increases to 10 percent
1991: State sales tax increases to 6 percent and expands to snack food
1991: State sales tax on restaurants increases to 7 percent
1991: State sales tax on liquor sales at restaurants and bars drops to 7 percent
1994: State sales tax on short-term car rentals increases to 10 percent
1998: State establishes Homestead Exemption Program, drops sales tax to 5.5 percent
2000: State sales tax drops to 5 percent
2001: Snack tax is repealed
2001: State expands restaurant tax to all prepared foods

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