Kentucky Taxation

Online Resources

 * 1799-1801 - Kentucky, Tax Lists, 1799-1801 at Ancestry.com (Free /$)
 * 1862-1874 - U.S., Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874 at FamilySearch.org. Images only.

Why Use Tax Records
By studying several consecutive years of tax records you may determine when a young men came of age, when individuals moved in and out of a home, or when they died leaving heirs. Authorities determined wealth (real estate, or income) to be taxed. Taxes can be for polls, real and personal estate, or schools. Tax record content varies and may include the name and residence of the taxpayer, description of the real estate, name of original purchaser, description of personal property, number of males over 21, number of school children, slaves, and farm animals. Tax records usually are arranged by date and locality and are not normally indexed. Tax records can be used in place of missing land and census records to locate a person’s residence.

County Level
Most of the counties have yearly tax records starting from the date of organisation. Extent county tax schedules from the organization of the county through 1892 have been microfilmed and are available from the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives and the FHL. Tax records from 1892 are available at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. The Kentucky Historical Society has tax records to 1875.

Tax lists are arranged by county and date. Residents within its districts are grouped together and names are usually arranged under the beginning letter of the surname, but otherwise not in alphabetical order. When looking through county tax books, make sure to check for divisions of the county in each year. In other words, the county is frequently split into multiple divisions that each have their own set of alphabetical records. Check in all divisions of a county for the name of the person you are seeking, in any given year. Some early tax records have been published and are available in research libraries.

State Level
The first tax records of Kentucky were created in the 1780s while Kentucky was part of Virginia. For example, the 1787 "census" of Virginia contained an accounting of the name of every white male over 21 years (called "tithables"), the number of white males between 16 and 21 years, the number of slaves over 16 and slaves under 16 years, together with a listing of his horses, cattle and carriages, and also the names of all persons to whom ordinary licenses and physicians’ licenses were issued.


 * Gail Jackson Miller.  Kentucky tax lists: a valuable resource for pre-1850s research. NGS Magazine 39 #1 (January-March 2013): Kentucky tax lists at FamilySearch.

Many early Kentucky tax lists have been published, including:


 * 1700s -  Early Kentucky Tax Records from The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1984. These tax lists contain the taxpayer’s name and county, the number of acres, males over or under 16, slaves, horses and cattle, and the water course near the property. An index is included.
 * 1782-1787 - Virginia Taxpayers, 1782-1787 by Augusta B. Fothergill, Reprint, Baltimore, Md. Genealogical Publishing, 1974. This includes Fayette and Lincoln Counties, Kentucky. It is alphabetical and contains the taxpayer’s name, county, and number of slaves.
 * 1787 - The 1787 Census of Virginia by Florence SpeakmanLove and Netti Schreiner-Yantis, compilers, 3 volumes, Springfield, Virginia: Genealogical Books in Print, 1987. Kentucky residents are listed as being in Kentucky County.
 * 1790 - First Census of Kentucky, 1790 by Charles Brunk Heinemann, Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1940..
 * 1800 - Enumeration of Tax Papers Second Census of Kentucky-1800 by Garrett Glenn Clift, A Privately Compiled and Published Enumeration of Tax Papers: Frankfort, Ky.: n.p., 1954. :  Appearing in the 79 Manuscript Volumes Extant of Tax Lists of the 42 Counties of Kentucky in Existence in 1800.

There are two main microfilm collections of Kentucky Tax Lists available. The Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives collection and the Kentucky State Historical Society's collection. (The FHL films are credited with the Kentucky State Historical Society in their catalog entry.)

The Family History Library has copies of tax lists for most counties to the 1890s. Many of the original tax lists from 1782 to 1875 are at the Kentucky Historical Society. These are also available on 398 microfilms at the Kentucky Historical Society. An inventory of the films is:


 * Kentucky Historical Society Index to Tax Lists. Frankfort, KY: The Society, 1973. Index to Tax Lists. This index is arranged by county and includes the year of the tax list and the Kentucky Historical Society reel and page numbers.

A list of persons taxed during the Civil War is:


 * 1862–1866 - United States Bureau of Internal Revenue. Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for Kentucky, 1862–1866''.  National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0768. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1971.  This extensive tax list shows monthly and annual taxes on personal property and licenses to practice and do business, income, and those who produced and distributed goods. Kentucky was divided into nine tax districts. Each film has a full list of counties and the districts they belonged to.


 * 1792-1840 - Kandie Adkinson's "Researching Early Kentucky Tax Lists: 1792-1840" is an excellent article on Kentucky taxation. The first half the article covers the 1792-1840 Kentucky legislation involved in the tax process, and the second half includes an example and "points to remember" when searching Kentucky tax lists. Kandie Adkinson continues her covering of the Kentucky legislative tax process to 1880 in the 2011 editions of the periodical Kentucky Ancestors. 

To locate Kentucky taxation records in the Family History Library, use a Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog

Tax Laws
Poll taxes were paid by white males age 21 or over for the privilege of voting. Since this was an annual tax, the tax lists serve as censuses. Some were used to "reconstruct" the missing 1790 and 1800 federal censuses. They can help trace the migration of families from county to county between federal censuses.

Since 1861, the tax collector collects taxes. Previously the treasurer and later the sheriff collected taxes. Except for inheritance taxes, the tax collector collects all county taxes, including "taxes on real and personal property, schools and special districts, and business licenses. "Historically the office of tax collector was combined with the office of county treasurer and sheriff. Today it is usually with the treasurer's office."

In July of 1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act to provide income for the Government to pay the public debt including Civil War costs. After the Civil War, taxes were abolished until only a tax on liquor and tobacco remained in 1883. An 1895 Supreme Court ruling declared that income tax was unconstitutional and led to the ratification of the sixteenth amendment in 1913 which states that Congress has the power to establish and collect taxes on incomes. This was the beginning of our modern day taxes.

To learn more about this collection click here

To learn more about the Civil War taxes click here (Kentucky was considered a boarder state during the civil war)

What history has shown us is that while property taxes are locally levied, there is significant state involvement with the amount of tax local political subdivisions can levy, how property assessments are conducted, and what services local taxing subdivisions must provide for their residents. Many of the changes the state has made in the past to lower the local property tax required a shift in financial responsibility from the local governments to the state. This comes at a cost to state taxpayers, because the state has obligations it must fund as well, with a limited amount of state tax dollars.