Happy birthday income tax, you're 100 years old (ouch!)

Happy birthday income tax, you're 100 years old (ouch!)

Did everybody forget this sacred day today ?

Oct. 4, 2013, is the latest centennial celebration

& Yes, 100 years ago, on the evening of Oct. 3, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1913 that allowed the collection of a federal income tax !!!!

Hmmm.

It's doubtful most people will notice, let alone celebrate, Friday's 100th anniversary of the U.S. income tax code. But, yes taxpayers, Oct. 4, 2013, is the centennial.

So, happy birthday income tax?

"Obviously, it depends on your perspective," said Ajay Mehrotra, a history professor at Indiana University.

"But there's one thing we can take from the period of time when the tax law passed," he said. "And that is lawmakers got together and realized some permanent form of taxation was needed instead of having a political stalemate that got nowhere."

One expert sees the 100 years as a system run amok.

Happy 100 1040

How are *YOU* Celebrating ?

Or a better question; How is *HE* celebrating ?

reply to post by xuenchen


What?! Are you trolling?

The income tax is far older than 100 years. I mean, honestly, the United States would have imploded without it. You can't possibly expect me to believe that the Union didn't crumble into trillions of itty-bitty pieces without taxing its citizens for 137 years?

How could people have been so selfish and greedy?!

From the OP source.

Yes - taxes are way older than 100 years but....

TextIt was the 16th Amendment, adopted in February 1913, that gave Congress the legal right to levy an income tax. On the evening of Oct. 3, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1913 that allowed the collection of a federal income tax—starting the next day.

Isn't this the truth

Text"By 2012, the tax code was 73,608 pages," he said. "We have gone from a simple tax system to a complex, unfriendly system."

I believe in 1906 taxes were still a voluntary thing so this all makes sense. I remember learning this from my boss years ago (1906 act) but haven't been able to find it.

In any case, if rumors are true (and I hope very much they are not) it sounds like people will be fined if they don't have health insurance, and such fines would be collected by the IRS. This would equate to our taxes no longer being for the purpose they were meant to be for - but rather a way to pay for our own health insurance that we can't afford to begin with. Again - I do hope this is only a rumor. I truly don't want to study it right now since it will be the straw that broke the camels back for me.

In any case - yes we have made a mess out of what was a great idea. It has been abused and misused. Sadly. One percentage for all is what I say (10% maybe). Straight up. And the IRS should "only" be used for income and collecting that percentage. Nothing more.

The income tax system as we know it today started in 1913.

It was very different before then.

Here's some history

..........
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.



History of the Income Tax in the United States

reply to post by xuenchen



A lot of early taxes came from sales taxes on goods in the US and tariffs on foreign shipments.

And then the federal government decided they hated their citizens.