AFAIK you are correct. Before the first world war taxation was different in most of those countries and work was not taxed directly at all otherwise only in war

AFAIK you are correct. Before the first world war taxation was different in most of those countries and work was not taxed directly at all otherwise only in war years (i.e. the first world war) so the meaning is new. There was no need for a word for something which did not exist.