The taille was the principal direct land tax paid by commoners in pre-Revolutionary France.
It developed from medieval military and feudal obligations and became a major source of royal revenue. In much of France, the tax was assessed on land and agricultural wealth, although administrative methods differed between regions.
The burden was highly unequal. The nobility and clergy often enjoyed important exemptions or privileges, while peasants and other members of the Third Estate carried much of the direct-tax load. This unequal structure was one of the grievances expressed in the period leading to the French Revolution.
The taille was distinct from the gabelle, the salt tax, and from the aides, a group of taxes on consumption and commerce. Revolutionary governments abolished the old system as they dismantled the fiscal privileges of the ancien régime.