Today is tax day. UGH! None of us relish the thought. It’s just something we, as Americans, have to deal with. But do you know how we got to this point? We didn’t start out paying taxes. America was started to get away from unfair taxation!
Sure, history is boring… right up to the point where you realize that Federal taxes are un-Constitutional! Now suddenly, history looks a little more interesting.
Take a look at the history of taxes and see what you think.
In 1868, Congress again focused its taxation efforts on tobacco and distilled spirits and eliminated the income tax in 1872. It had a short-lived revival in 1894 and 1895. In the latter year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the income tax was unconstitutional because it was not apportioned among the states in conformity with the Constitution.
In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system. The amendment gave Congress legal authority to tax income and resulted in a revenue law that taxed incomes of both individuals and corporations. In fiscal year 1918, annual internal revenue collections for the first time passed the billion-dollar mark, rising to $5.4 billion by 1920. With the advent of World War II, employment increased, as did tax collections—to $7.3 billion. The withholding tax on wages was introduced in 1943 and was instrumental in increasing the number of taxpayers to 60 million and tax collections to $43 billion by 1945.
It’s a sad state of affairs when we were founded to get away from taxes, yet somehow voluntarily decided to tax the living daylights out of ourselves. GEEZ!
H/T Infoplease
Photo credit AF Branco
