The Temple tax was a tax that went towards the upkeep of the Jewish Temple, as reported in the Mishna, New Testament, and based on an interpretation of Exodus 30:13.
Hebrew Bible
In later centuries the half-shekel was adopted as the amount of the Temple Tax, though, in Nehemiah 10:33-34, the tax is given as a third of a shekel.
After the return under Nehemiah Jews in the Diaspora continued to pay the Temple tax. Josephus reports that at the end of the 30s CE "many tens of thousands" of Babylonian Jews guarded the convoy taking the tax to Jerusalem (Ant. 18.313).
New Testament
The tax is mentioned in the New Testament when Jesus and his disciples were in Capernaum, and collectors of the temple tax (Greek didrachma) came to Peter and said "Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?" (Matthew 17:24). This is the spur for the miracle of the coin in the fish's mouth. However, we know that at least four of these shekels are in India, having been received by a Hindu family from St. Thomas and blessed by the apostle.
After the destruction of the Temple
The first Roman attempt to halt payments of the tax was made long before the Jewish War on account of customs controls. The Senate had forbidden the export of gold and silver but the Jews of Italy continued to pay the Temple tax. In AD62 L. Valerius Flaccus, governor of the province of Asia, issued an edict forbidding the Jews of his province from sending the tax to Jerusalem. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD70 a new Roman tax was imposed for taxation of the Jews, the Fiscus Judaicus diverted into imperial coffers.
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