This chapter describes the main features of the tax system in place before the reform of the Spanish Transition. It briefly shows the evolution since the mid-nineteenth century, when the liberal tax system was introduced, and puts more focus on changes and persistence during Francoism, particularly after 1957. The guiding line in the chapter is how taxation was low, complex, and regressive, and rested on very weak assessments of economic capacity; therefore, some specific attention is given to the development of the precedents to the modern income tax. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the attempts at reform that emerged in the early 1970s.