A poll tax, also called a lump-sum tax or head tax, collects the same amount of money from each individual regardless of income or circumstances. Poll taxes are not widely used because their burden falls hardest on the poor. When the British government implemented a system of local poll taxes in 1990, citizens considered the tax so unfair that they held demonstrations—some violent—around the country. The extreme unpopularity of the tax contributed to the downfall of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her successor, John Major, repealed the tax in 1991. In the United States, the 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, prohibited the payment of poll taxes as a requirement for voting in federal elections. Until that time, a number of Southern states had used poll taxes to deny poor blacks the right to vote.
