Tax fraud isn't a recent issue. A newly translated papyrus uncovered a 1,900-year-old Roman court case involving forgery and tax fraud, demonstrating that even in the days of emperors and gladiators, people found methods to trick the system. While today's tax regulations are significantly more complicated, the fundamental issues—fraudulent schemes, legal loopholes, and government efforts to clamp down—remain hauntingly identical.
So, what lessons can accountants, tax experts, and company owners draw from history? Let's look at this intriguing case and see how it relates to current tax fraud—and why compliance is as important as ever.
According to Archaeology Magazine , a newly researched papyrus from the second century A.D. describes a spectacular Roman court trial involving tax fraud and forgery. The document, unearthed in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, indicates that a rich man called Petaus was accused of faking tax receipts to escape financial commitments to the Roman state—a serious enough offense to justify a trial under Roman law.
At the time, the Roman Empire's economy was based on a strict but profoundly defective tax system that imposed considerable costs on landowners, merchants, and ordinary residents. Taxes were collected for:
Tax collectors, known as publicani, were privately hired by the government to collect income, resulting in rampant misuse, bribery, and extortion. If Petaus forged paperwork to avoid paying taxes, he was not alone—tax evasion was so common throughout the empire that historians routinely cite examples of tax riots, systematic fraud, and corrupt officials skimming the top.
Petaus' trial was no laughing matter—forgery and tax fraud were regarded very severely in ancient Rome. If convicted, he risked severe punishments, including financial loss, public humiliation, and possibly physical punishment. Unlike today, when tax evaders are often fined or imprisoned, Roman justice had fewer protections and harsher repercussions, especially for those without political connections.
Rome's taxation approach was based on tax farming, in which private persons paid the government up advance for the privilege to collect taxes. This meant that these tax collectors—often affluent elites—kept a portion of the money as profit, pushing them to overcharge taxpayers wherever feasible. The system was so exploitative that Roman authors such as Tacitus characterized regional revolts over excessive taxes as an ongoing issue.
Some experts suggest that Rome's financial troubles are similar to today's tax conflicts. According to Walter Scheidel , a well-known Roman historian at Stanford University, the corruption of Roman tax collecting resembles current financial loopholes. Today's billionaires employ trusts, offshore accounts, and legal structures to reduce their tax obligation, much as affluent elites did in the past.
Similarly to current multinational firms that use legal loopholes to move earnings offshore, affluent Romans often paid tax collectors or faked papers to lower their liabilities, as Petaus reportedly did. This technique permitted Rome's aristocracy to keep their wealth while the middle and poorer classes suffered the majority of the financial load.
While today's tax structure seems dramatically different from that of ancient Rome, there are remarkable similarities between the two periods. In both situations, governments battled to plug loopholes, while people with the necessary money and skills discovered methods to legally (or criminally) avoid taxes. The Roman Empire's refusal to modernize its tax system led to economic instability, leading authorities to levy higher taxes on individuals who couldn't avoid them—a situation that bears striking similarities to present worries over tax justice.
Some of the similarities between ancient and contemporary tax fraud are:
Forged documentation vs fabricated deductions - Just like Petaus reportedly fabricated a tax receipt, today's tax evaders often file false expenditure claims or make exaggerated charity contributions to reduce their taxable income.
Bribery and corruption - In Rome, tax collectors often took bribes to "look the other way." In current times, we see corporate tax avoidance methods that use loopholes, dummy corporations, and offshore accounts to reduce tax payments.
Harsh enforcement measures – Roman tax collectors were feared for their aggressive debt collection procedures, which are similar to today's IRS audits and fraud investigations involving high-profile persons.
According to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, tax fraud is one of the most significant revenue drains in the United States economy today, which he claims the IRS is working hard to address. "Ensuring fairness in the tax system requires ongoing adaptation and enforcement," Werfel said at a recent Senate session. "We are committed to closing gaps that allow some to avoid paying their fair share while ensuring compliance measures are transparent and effective."
Fast forward almost two millennia, and tax evasion has become a multibillion-dollar business. Financial criminals' tactics have changed from Swiss bank accounts to cryptocurrency-based laundering, but the objective remains the same: keep riches away from tax officials.
According to the New York Times , Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has legally structured his fortune to avoid billions of dollars in inheritance taxes by using clever trusts. While not blatant fraud, these tactics demonstrate how the ultra-rich use tax regulations to reduce payments.
After years of court fights, a 2020 New York Times story revealed that Trump often recorded enormous losses to offset income, which is a popular but controversial strategy among the affluent.
In January 2025, Reuters reported that the Swiss bank was found guilty of assisting customers in concealing billions of dollars from tax authorities, demonstrating how multinational organizations may be involved in large-scale tax cheating.
While ancient Rome lacked forensic accountants and AI-powered fraud detection technologies, its issues with tax evasion remain relevant. What can today's professionals take away?
Whether in 150 A.D. or 2025, governments lose income as a result of fraudulent tactics. Accountants and tax preparers must be attentive, using technology and compliance tactics to protect their customers' legal and financial interests.
Just as Rome had to alter its tax collecting methods, contemporary countries are continuously updating tax legislation. Accountants must remain on top of legislative changes, such as the recent IRS spending increases focused at auditing high-income taxpayers who do not pay their fair share of federal taxes.
History tends to repeat itself. While modern tax systems are significantly more sophisticated than Rome's, the reasons for fraud remain the same. From ancient papyrus trials to modern-day corporate tax loopholes, the conflict between tax officials and those attempting to escape payments is ongoing.
Understanding this history is not only intriguing to accountants and tax professionals; it underlines the need of compliance, ethics, and remaining educated in an ever-changing financial world. Governments will continue to improve tax rules, corporations will seek legal benefits, and bad actors will always try to trick the system. Accountants' position as trusted consultants is more important than ever, ensuring that firms and people follow the tax laws fairly and legally.