Mississippi Taxation

Online Resources

 * 1818-1902 - Mississippi, County Tax Rolls  This page has a camera to click on to view, but it also has a View HERE which takes you to the 1820-1951 main page.
 * 1862-1874 - U.S., Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874 at FamilySearch. Images only.
 * 1818-1902 - Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Series 1202: County Tax Rolls, images by county
 * 1820-1951 - Mississippi, State Archives, Various Records
 * Mississippi, Territorial Tax Rolls

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
Local county courthouses maintain original tax records, both real and personal.

Books :
 * 1803-1816 - Washington County, Mississippi Territory 1803-1816 tax rolls; by Jean Strickland and Patricia N. Edwards. Washington County, Mississippi Territory later became Wayne, Greene, Jones, Perry, George and Jackson Counties, Mississippi and Washington, Baldwin, Monroe, Clarke and Mobile Counties, Alabama.
 * 1790-1791 - The Natchez Ledgers, 1790-1791 : a finding-aid for Anglo-Americans in pre-territorial Mississippi by Winston De Ville and Houston Tracy, Jr., Ville Platte, Louisiana : W. De Ville, 1994.
 * Residents of Mississippi territory by Jean Strickland and Patricia N. Edwards Strickland, Moss Point, Mississippi : B. Strickland, 1995.

State Level
Another possible place to look is in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History where the collections is extensive, Microfilm copies of the earlier records are found, but there are gaps, although not many, some counties have published years of tax rolls. (Mississippi Department of Archives and History link to online Tax records is listed above)

Mississippi Department of Archives and History Home Page: 200 North St. Jackson, MS 39201 Phone: (601) 576-6850

Tax Laws
Abraham Lincoln instituted the income tax in 1862, and on July 1, 1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act, creating the Bureau of Internal Revenue (later renamed to the Internal Revenue Service). This act was intended to “provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay interest on the Public Debt.” Instituted in the height of the Civil War, the “Public Debt” at the time primarily consisted of war expenses. For the Southern States that were part of the Confederate side of the Civil War, once Union troops took over parts of the Southern States, income tax were instituted on them.
 * To learn more about this Collection click here
 * To learn more about the Civil War taxes click here

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. This comes at a cost to state taxpayers, because the state has obligations it must fund as well, with a limited amount of s