Editing Rules of Go (section)

===Group tax===
''Group tax'' means deducting one point for every eye needed for a group to survive.<ref name=Sensei>{{Cite web|url = https://senseis.xmp.net/?GroupTax|title = Group Tax|access-date=2024-07-29}}</ref> It equals two points for living groups and one point for groups in seki with one eye.<ref name=Sensei/> 

Group tax was a relic of stone scoring. Stone scoring includes it automatically since every (living) group needs two eyes and hence they cannot all be filled.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.nordicgodojo.eu/post/228/area-or-territory-a-brief-history-of-go-rules|title =Area or territory – A brief history of go rules|author = Antti Törmänen |year = 2020|quote = [Group tax] was a byproduct of stone scoring: originally, only living scores counted towards a player’s score, so in the end the board was filled with stones; but every group has to leave two empty intersections for its eyes. Therefore, when the ‘group tax’ applies, every group costs a player two points.}}</ref>  Group tax was used with territory scoring both in Japan and in China.<ref name=Sensei/> In Japan it was abandoned because it made territory scoring convoluted.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.nordicgodojo.eu/post/228/area-or-territory-a-brief-history-of-go-rules|title =Area or territory – A brief history of go rules|author = Antti Törmänen |year = 2020|quote = Therefore, when the ‘group tax’ applies, every group costs a player two points. This rule made the territory scoring process more convoluted, which is probably the main reason why it was abolished. }}</ref>   In China during the [[Ming Dynasty]] a new scoring system was devised: area scoring with group tax.<ref>{{Cite web|author =  Chen Zuyuan|year = 2011|title = The History of Go Rules|quote = So around the mid-Ming Dynasty, a new way of counting was invented: unilateral stones-counting on the overall 361 points. The total number of points on the board is 361, and we can count the total number of the stones and empty territory by one side, and compare it with the number 180.5. To be sure, eye points will have remained discounted, and in practice the score will have been amended with the difference between the numbers of both strings of living stones. |url = https://www.usgo-archive.org/sites/default/files/bh_library/historyofgorules.pdf}}</ref> The new system was equivalent to stone scoring. The group tax is likely the reason why eyes in seki aren't scored in the Japanese Rules.<ref name = Sensei/>