Taxation Of The United States

1944 - Congress passed the Individual Income Tax Act, which created the standard deductions on Form 1040 (Internal Revenue Service, 2013).

The arguments regarding federal progressive income tax has been represented to us through the United States Supreme Court, on the floors of congress, and in media. The revenue from taxes reached the objective of financing wars from the Civil War through World War II. At the same time deteriorating the economy with fewer dollars that could be used on imports, exports, and services (Henchman). Today, the United States deficit is $18,800,241,350,538.12 this is a grand total of 58,405.32 owed by every man, woman, and child (Brown). The legal illusion is presenting the question, is income tax legal? There are Americans today who believe income tax is not legal and stand by their beliefs in a movement that has cost many individuals considerably. I am interviewing such a person, his name is Bobby Ray and the history he presented to me was interesting, and has left me with more questions than answers.

2. Before the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, there was no valid Federal income tax on individuals.

The Revenue Act of 1862 is the first instance of income tax in America. It imposed a progressive income tax rate on Union citizens in order to raise money for the war effort against the Confederacy. http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/personal-income-taxes/income-tax.htmThe income tax was abolished in 1872, declared unconstitutional in 1895, and then passed as an amendment in 1913.http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1986/winter/civil-war-tax-records.html Cite everything above! The 16th amendment states “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” (YOU NEED

In 1765 the British Parliament issued The Stamp Act which was to be the first internal tax imposed on the colonists. This meant that just about anything made from paper was subjected to being taxed such as legal documents, newspapers, almanacs, playing cards and dice each of

In July 1861, the Congress passed a 3% tax on all personal net income above $600 a year that is equitant to about $10,000 today. However, no revenue was ever raised because a second tax passed before the first was due on June 30, 1862. The war 's demand on resources made the earlier tax ineffective, and

In 1861, Lincoln levied the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Needing cash with which to fund the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and the Congress agreed to impose a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800.00. The wording of the Revenue Act was broadly written to define income as a monetary gain derived from any kind of property, or from any specialized trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere or from any source whatever. (A&E Television Networks, 2014)

The frustration of taxation did not begin in 1774, it began years earlier with the sugar and the Townshend acts. These acts caused a tax on imported goods such as sugar, glass, tea, and paper. These taxes were collected at the time of importation by British Customs officers in the

When the Northern economy cultivated, the congress decided to help and pay for the war by gathering their first income tax.

The purpose of the Sixteenth Amendment was that it provided power to the Congress to directly or indirectly tax all income. It also allow government to create income taxes and caused all taxpayers (individual and corporate) to pay a portion of their income to the government. The Sixteenth Amendment created a key way to generate funds to run the country.

Tax reforms started in 1916 when the Wilson administration decided to cooperate with a group of insurgent democrats on war time financing, which was majorly progressive taxation. This was important because it led to attacking the wealthy, special privilege, and public corruption. The administration embraced this taxation as “means to achieve social justice.” Another major element to Wilsons administration was redistributional taxation. This helped drive between socialism and unmediated capitalism. The major debate at the time was over the question, “ What stake does society have in corporate profits?” The debates outcome created “soak-the-rich” income taxation. Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1916. This was the first tax on personal incomes.

The focus of what the government wanted to tax changed over the years, it started with taxing incomes and then moved on to taxing 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. It wouldn’t be until 1913 that the 16th amendment was passed and added to the Constitution that income tax would become a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system.

Then there is the Internal Revenue act of 1861, which increased income tax rate. This assured us that the government would have a, “reliable source of income to pay the interest of war bonds” (119). In addition to that, we have the Subsequent Revenue act of 1862 and 1864, which allowed for progressive tax bracket. This act had a tax system that put a tax on everything, for example, medicines, yachts, and etc. The Morril tariff Act of 1860 and 1861 was a reform in which the tax was doubled on items in which customs tax could be collected. Furthermore, the National banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 encouraged people to carry out national currency and national charters. Provision of the 1864, which executed a 10 percent tax on the banknotes of the states. Because the tax base grew by a significant amount a Bureau of Internal Revenue had to be created to control and regulate the tax needs.

The initial income tax sparked a debate that has raged ever since. "The Government taxed personal income for the first time in 1862,

The United States tax system is in complete disarray. Republicans and Democrats agree that the current tax code is complex, unfair, and costly. The income tax system is so complex; the IRS publishes 480 tax forms and 280 forms to explain the 480 forms (Armey 1). The main reason the tax system is so complex is because of the special preferences such as deductions and tax credits. Complexity in the current tax system forces Americans to spend 5.4 billion hours complying with the tax code, which is more time than it takes to manufacture every car, truck and van produced in the United States (Armey 1). Time is not the only thing that is lost with the current tax system; Americans also lose