centesima rerum venalium
{{Short description|1% tax on goods sold at auctions in ancient Rome}}
Centesima rerum venalium ({{lit|hundredth of the value of everything sold}}) was a 1% tax on goods sold at auction during the Roman Empire.
History
Tax revenues went into a fund to pay military retirement benefits (aerarium militare), along with those from a new sales tax (centesima rerum venalium), a 1% tax on goods sold at auction.Gardner, "Liability to Inheritance Tax," p. 205; Graham Burton, "Government and the Provinces," in The Roman World (Routledge, 1987, 2002), p. 428; Peter Michael Swan, The Augustan Succession: An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History Books 55–56 (9 B.C–A.D. 14) (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 178. The inheritance tax is extensively documented in sources pertaining to Roman law, inscriptions, and papyri.Gardner, "Liability to Inheritance Tax," p. 205. A 2nd-century AD epitaph for a Roman of equestrian rank, for instance, lists procurator of the 5 percent inheritance tax on his career résumé (CIL 10.482). It was one of three major indirect taxes levied on Roman citizens in the provinces of the Empire.Burton, "Government and the Provinces," p. 428.