Household tax (podvornoe oblozhenie). A system of direct taxation introduced in Russia in 1679, in which the basic unit taxed was the household. It replaced the tax based on the sokha (plough), and enlarged the tax base by including previously exempt categories of the population. The central government set the total tax to be collected from a community and the village or town administration apportioned the tax among the households according to their ability to pay. The household tax was introduced in Left-Bank Ukraine at the end of the 17th century and continued to be collected until the second half of the 18th century.
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]