April 15, 2019

Tax Day

The U.S. didn't institute an income tax until the time of the Civil War, as a temporary measure. It took the Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, to make it possible for the federal government to tax individuals directly.

But the story of tax day doesn't end there. In 1954, Congress passed nearly 1,000 pages of revision to the Internal Revenue Code. In it, Tax Day would be moved from March 15 to April 15, giving the taxpayer an extra month to recover from Christmas expenses.

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Today's Random Fact:

Previous to 1862, the government only collected sales tax on certain items such as alcohol and tobacco. President Lincoln created the IRS and enacted a 3 percent income tax on those who made between $600 and $10,000 to assist in covering Civil War costs. This would be repealed 10 years later.

The income tax system employed by the IRS that we know today would not be put into place until 1913 with the addition of the 16th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived..."

When the income tax was fully established in 1913, the tax rate was 1 percent. Few paid income tax to the IRS, as it was required only if you made $3,000 or more per year. That year only 1 out of 271 Americans had to pay income tax.

Bonus Fact:

Tax deniers (tax defiers or tax protesters) are people who refuses to pay tax on constitutional or legal grounds.

Tax protesters raise a number of different kinds of arguments, these typically include constitutional arguments, such as claims that the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was not properly ratified or that it is unconstitutional generally, or that being forced to file an income tax return violates the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

These arguments rarely work out for them.