Paying through the nose

[Rick burdett]

Where does the phrase paying through the nose come from? Is it something to do with the fact that your nose was chopped off if you didn't pay taxes or something similar?

[shaneystar2]

A possible explanation for this lies in the nose tax levied upon the Irish by the Danes in the ninth century. Those who did not pay had their noses slit.
Another explanation relies on the use of rhino as a slang for money. Rhinos is the Greek word for nose, thus a rather loose connection is supposed to be set up between paying and noses. A nosebleed as a metaphor for being "bled dry" of money.