the first income tax amendment was passed in the united states in 1861.
when was the first income tax amendment passed in the united states?
1861
after congress proposed the amendment, conservative republican leaders, as well as businessmen like john d. rockefeller, organized efforts to prevent its ratification. these conservative forces were initially confident that over a quarter of the state legislature would reject the income tax amendment, but the country shifted in a progressive direction after 1909. numerous conservative state legislators lost power during the 1910 and 1912 election cycles, and the imposition of taxes in wisconsin and other states served as evidence of the viability of a federal income tax. on february 3, 1913, wyoming became the 36th state to approve the amendment, and later that month secretary of state knox declared that the united states had ratified the sixteenth amendment. after taft left office, a new federal income tax was imposed through the revenue act of 1913.
presidency of william howard taft
an income tax is neither a poll tax nor a capitation, as the amount of tax will vary from person to person, depending on each person's income. until a united states supreme court decision in 1895, all income taxes were deemed to be excises (i.e., indirect taxes). the revenue act of 1861 established the first income tax in the united states, to pay for the cost of the american civil war. this income tax was abolished after the war, in 1872. another income tax statute in 1894 was overturned in "pollock v. farmers' loan & trust co." in 1895, where the supreme court held that income taxes on income from property, such as rent income, interest income, and dividend income (however excepting income taxes on income from "occupations and labor" if only for the reason of not having been challenged in the case, "we have considered the act only in respect of the tax on income derived from real estate, and from invested personal property") were to be treated as direct taxes. because the statute in question had not apportioned income taxes on income from property by population, the statute was ruled unconstitutional. finally, ratification of the sixteenth amendment to the united states constitution in 1913 made possible modern income taxes, by limiting the sixteenth amendment income tax to the class of indirect excises (i.e. excises, duties, and imposts) – thus requiring no apportionment,
poll tax