This law has been pointed out as the main reason some Confederates deserters and fought against their own people... There are some points about the law that dispute these "claims" and shoot down this myth. Most people in the South would not meet the below requirements to pay.

Tax and Assessment Acts, and Amendments.
The Tax Act of 24th April 1863, As Amended:

SEC. 1. Every person engaged or intending to engage in any business named in the fourth section of this act, shall within sixty days after the passage of this act, or at the time of beginning business, and on the first day of January in each year thereafter, register with the district collector, in such form as the commissioner of taxes shall prescribe, a true account of the name and residence of each person, firm, or corporation engaged or interested in the business, with a statement of the time for which, and the place and manner in which the same is to be conducted, and of all other facts going to ascertain the amount of tax upon such business for the past or the future, according to the provisions of this act. At the time of such registry, there shall be paid to the collector the specific tax for the year, ending on the next thirty-first of December, and such other tax as may be due upon sales or receipts in such business, at the time of such registry, as herein provided; and the collector shall give to the person making such registry a copy thereof, with a receipt for the amount of tax then paid.

Summary of Section 4.

Bankers
Auctioneers
Retail and Wholesale Dealers
Distillers
Pawnbrokers
Hotels
Jugglers
Circus
Theaters
Tobacconists
Brokers
Bowling alleys and billiard room owners
Livery stable keepers
Cattle brokers
Butchers and bakers
Jewelers
Peddlers
Apothecaries
Photographers
Lawyers
Physicians, surgeons and dentists
Confectioners

Salaries -- 1 per c't. on first $1,500, 2 per cent. on excess over $1,500.
Military and naval exempt.
Salaries less than $1,000 exempt.

Incomes not exceeding $500 exempt.

Exemptions, each family not worth more than $500.

I. Each head of a family not worth more [than] five hundred dollars.

$500, and for each minor $100, $500 for each minor living, lost, or disabled in the army.

II. Each head of a family with minor children, not worth more than five hundred dollars for himself, and one hundred dollars for each minor living with him, and five hundred dollars in addition thereto, for each minor son he has living, or may have lost, or had disabled in the military or naval service.

$100 each officer &c., in the army &c., or discharged for wounds.

III. Each officer, soldier or seaman, in the army or navy, or who has been discharged therefrom for wounds, and is not worth more than one thousand dollars.

SEC. 10. That each farmer and planter in the Confederate States, after reserving for his own use fifty bushels of sweet potatoes, and fifty bushels of Irish potatoes, one hundred bushels of the corn, or fifty bushels of the wheat produced in the present year, shall pay and deliver to the Confederate Government, of the products of the present year, one-tenth of the wheat, corn, oats, rye, buckwheat or rice, sweet and Irish potatoes, and of the cured hay and fodder; also one tenth of the sugar, molasses made of cane or of sorghum, where more than thirty gallons are made, cotton, wool and tobacco; the cotton ginned and packed in some secure manner, and tobacco stripped and packed in boxes; the cotton to be delivered by him on or before the first day of March, and the tobacco on or before the first day of July, next after their production. Each farmer or planter, after reserving twenty bushels of peas or beans, but not more than twenty bushels of both, for his own use, shall deliver to the Confederate Government, for its use, one-tenth of the peas, beans and ground peas produced and gathered by him during the present year. As soon as each of the aforesaid crops are made ready for market, the tax assessor, in case of disagreement between him and the tax payer, shall proceed to estimate the same in the following manner: The assessor and tax payer shall each select a disinterested freeholder from the vicinage, who may call in a third in case of difference of opinion, to settle the matter in dispute; or if the tax payer neglects or refuses to select one such freeholder, the said assessor shall select two, who shall proceed to assess the crops as herein provided. They shall ascertain the amount of the crops either by actual measurement or by computing the contents of the rooms or houses in which they are held, when a correct computation is practicable by such a method, and the appraisers shall then estimate under oath, the quantity and quality of said crops, including what may have been sold or consumed by the producer prior to said estimates, whether gathered or not; excepting from said estimates such portion of said crops as may be necessary to raise and fatten the hogs of such farmer, planter or grazier, for pork; Provided, That the following persons shall be exempt from the payment of the tax in kind, imposed by this section, viz:

IV. Each widow of any officer, soldier or seaman, who has died in the military, or naval service, the widow not worth more than one thousand dollars: Provided, That in all cases where the farmer or planter does not produce more than fifty bushels of Irish potatoes, two hundred bushels of corn, or twenty bushels of peas and beans, he shall not be subject to the tax in kind on said articles, or either of them; and the forage derived from the corn plant, shall also be exempt in all cases where the corn is not taxed in kind; neither shall any farmer or planter, who does not produce more than ten pounds of wool, or more fifteen pounds of ginned cotton, for each member of the family, be subject to said tax in kind