The 1696 British levy charged householders for each window in their homes was the Window tax.
King William III's government introduced the tax to raise revenue without requiring officials to enter homes and count possessions. The number of windows was used as a visible proxy for household wealth, because larger houses generally had more windows. England and Wales initially applied a flat house tax plus a charge based on window numbers.
Many owners responded by bricking up windows or designing houses with fewer openings. This produced the familiar phrase “daylight robbery,” although the phrase's exact connection to the tax is debated. The tax was repealed in 1851 after long criticism that it encouraged unhealthy, poorly lit housing.
The Window tax is sometimes confused with the earlier Hearth tax, which was based on the number of fireplaces. Both were household taxes, but they measured different features of a property.