Title: Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln
Headings: 
VIII. Savings During the Presidency
Content: Laws passed in the summer of 1861 authorized large bond issues and an issue of $140,000,000 in Treasury Notes. The bonds bore interest at 6%; the notes carried a rate of 7.3% (two cents a day on $100) which was payable in gold semi-annually, and were commonly known as (7-30) "seven-thirties." Believing at first that the war would be short, the administration was reluctant to tax heavily. However, the revenue bill of August 5, 1861, did call for new levies, among them an income tax of three per cent on all annual income in excess of $800. This tax was to be paid June 30, 1862, but Congress met before that date and reported a new bill. The House committee which reported the bill made clear their antipathy to an income tax, but under the circumstances, one was un|avoidable. The tax, their report said plaintively, was an "inquisitorial one at best; but, upon looking into the considerable class of state officers, Page 126 and the many thousands who are employed on a fixed salary, most of whom would not contribute a penny unless called upon through this tax, it has been thought best not to wholly abandon it." 4
Income tax was first collected under the general revenue act, ap|proved July 1, 1862.