Tax Day 2015 is almost here. That means it would probably be a good idea for you to start thinking about filing those taxes right about now.
However, the fact that you're in this situation in the first place is probably because, like most Americans, you don't like doing your taxes. There is basically nothing fun about the process. It's long, tedious and at the end of it, you have to give the government some of your money. Whose idea was it to start this "grand" tradition, anyway?
Like it or not, taxes are actually woven into the fabric of this great nation we call the U.S. of A. Remember how the war for American independence was started partly because the British Parliament passed a bunch of tax and trade laws imposed on the American colonists, who didn't have any say in how things were going in the colonies. You must have heard the phrase "No taxation without representation" before.
Of course, those tariffs didn't tax income, which is what Tax Day is all about. You can thank President Abraham Lincoln for that. On Aug. 5, 1861, Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861, which imposed the first federal income tax. Months before this, Lincoln had sent letters to cabinet members Edward Bates, Gideon Welles and Salmon Chase asking whether or not they thought the president actually had the authority to impose such a measure. A national income tax was intended to support the military in the Civil War, and Lincoln could only tax the northern states, although the Confederacy had its own taxation system in place. The Revenue Act of 1861 included a tax on imports, a direct land tax and a tax of 3 percent on individual incomes over $800, which would be about $18,000 today, according to the National Constitution Center.
However, the Revenue Act of 1861 was far from a success. Tax collection wasn't very effective, and the income tax levied only applied to 3 percent of northerners. The Revenue Act was revised in 1862 to include the first progressive income tax imposed on Americans and create what would later become known as the Internal Revenue Service.
As you can probably guess, not all Americans were fans of the Revenue Act. It was unsuccessfully challenged in the Supreme Court case Springer v. United States in 1864. Then in 1871, Congress repealed the law, which many did not think would ever return.
Oh, how wrong they were. Congress passed another national income tax in 1894, but it was ruled unconstitutional the following year in the Supreme Court case Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Company because it was a direct tax not apportioned based on the population of each state. However, the national income tax was back for good with the 16th Amendment, passed by Congress on July 2, 1909 and ratified on Feb. 3, 1913, which allowed the federal government to tax the incomes of citizens without regard to each state's population.
So the next time you huff and puff about having to pay your taxes, just think of it as participating in an age-old American tradition, with a deep, rich history. Yeah, I didn't really think that would make it better either.
Photo: Dave Dugdale | Flickr
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page
