Lay Taxes in England and Wales 1188-1688 by M Jurkowski, C L Smith and D Crook, PRO Publications, 1998. https://earlycharitylawsources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Jurkowskial-LayTaxes1188_1688-PRO-No31-1998-reduced.pdf
This book lists every enactment that imposed taxes (other than on the church) during the 500 years it covers.
It gives some historical background for each tax plus a brief explanation of how it worked—including who was exempt. Each explanation includes citations of source documents.
- From roughly 1500 on, every tax enactment was normally an act of parliament which was temporary, lasting just one year. Using the cited regnal year and chapter, the actual original text of any one of these can be found in the Statutes of the Realm (which is available online), or sometimes in other UK legislative series (which may also be available online).
- Before 1500 many tax enactments were not recorded as statutes and therefore appear only in another record, usually the Rolls of Parliament. Those citations are also provided in this book, but finding the original texts may be more of a challenge.
Using this reference work, users can, in theory, find any enactment that gave a tax exemption to charities or equivalent.