Quit rent, quit-rent, or quitrent is a
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
or
land tax imposed on occupants of
freehold
Freehold may refer to:
In real estate
*Freehold (law), the tenure of property in fee simple
* Customary freehold, a form of feudal tenure of land in England
* Parson's freehold, where a Church of England rector or vicar of holds title to benefice ...
or
lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
d land in lieu of services to a higher landowning authority, usually a
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
or its
assigns.
Under
feudal law, the payment of quit rent (Latin ''Quietus Redditus'', pl. ''Redditus Quieti'')
freed the
tenant of a holding from the obligation to perform such other services as were obligatory under feudal tenure, or freed the occupier of the land from the burden of having others use their own distinct rights that affected the land (e.g. hunting rights which would have hindered farming). Thus it was a payment for distinct rights that were connected with the full enjoyment of the land but not parcelled up in the ownership of the land. Formally it was a sort of buy-back rather than a tax. A tax can be varied by the taxer; and if not paid there are penalties that can be varied by the taxer without formal limit. In contrast the only sanction for not paying a feudal quit rent was that the alternative burdens would return. This imposed a ceiling on how much could be demanded in payment of a quit rent. Where the sanctions for non-compliance are limited in this way, a quit rent is a rent in form and name, and not a tax; where they are not so limited, a quit rent is a rent only in form and name, being rather a tax. The latter is the usual case today, as the former was in earlier times.
In post-feudal times, quit rents have continued to be imposed by some governments, usually attached to land grants as a form of land tax.
The quit rent system was used frequently by
colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
governments in the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
. Many land grants in
colonial America in the 17th and 18th centuries carried quit rent. Quit rents went on to be used in British
colonies
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
,
protectorate
A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its int ...
s, etc. in Asia and elsewhere in the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, in
British North Borneo
(I persevere and I achieve)
, national_anthem =
, capital = Kudat (1881–1884);Sandakan (1884–1945);Jesselton (1946)
, common_languages = English, Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau, Murut, Sabah Malay, Chinese etc.
, go ...
, Proclamation IX of 1902 made it a legal requirement for natives who claimed to own cultivated lands to take out separate land titles for themselves, charged at $2.00 per title with owners made to pay annual quit rent.
[Regina Lim]
Federal-state relations in Sabah, Malaysia: the Berjaya administration 1976–85
page 28, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008,
Some governments have now abolished the quit rent system and relieved those with a nominal quit rent obligation from the requirement to pay it, replacing quit rents with a uniform system of
land tax. However, in other countries, such as
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
, quit rent remains an important means of raising revenue from landowners.
See also
*
Quit Rents ceremony
References
External links
*{{Cite NIE, wstitle=Quit Rent, short=x
Renting
Feudalism
Land tenure