The way I remember it, the founding fathers weren't protesting the taxes, so much as the lack of representation. That's arguably wrong as well. A large number

The way I remember it, the founding fathers weren't protesting the taxes, so much as the lack of representation. That's arguably wrong as well. A large number of American colonists (particularly in Boston; esp John Hancock) made a living as smugglers bypassing English tax laws and circumventing the EITC's trade monopoly on tea. The administrative changes that parliament made in that time included not only new taxes but better enforcement of laws which were already on the books and this nearly drove many prominent Americans out of business.