This article describes the new Tax Introduction Dataset (TID). Listing the year and the mode of the first
permanent introduction of six major taxes (inheritance tax, personal income tax, corporate income tax,
social security contributions, general sales tax and value added tax) in 220 countries, and covering the
period 1750-2017, TID is the most comprehensive dataset of its kind. The comprehensiveness of our
measure is of critical value to empirical work on the causes of tax innovation and its consequences for
state, society and economy. In this paper, we explain the selection of our tax sample and the structure of
the dataset, descriptively map temporal and regional patterns of tax introductions around the world, and
draw on TID to investigate associations between tax introductions and economic development, war, and
democratization.