Title: 7 Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln That Might Surprise You | Guy Counseling
Headings: 7 Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln That Might Surprise You
7 Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln That Might Surprise You
Abraham Lincoln and his accomplishments
1. Opening Settlement of the West through Homesteading
2. Authorizing The First Railroad Connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts
3. Beginning the Land Grant Colleges
4. Coining the American Greenback dollar
5. Collecting the First Income Tax and Founding the IRS
6. Beginning the Secret Service
7. Instituting the first official Thanksgiving Day
Summing Things Up
About John D. Moore
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Content: With the invention of the dollar, Lincoln rang in the modern era of the government borrowing money from itself. There have been some changes to the dollar – like the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 and Richard Nixon’s removal of the dollar from the gold standard in 1971. But the federal American currency started by Lincoln remains one of the strongest global currencies, and is gladly accepted as valuable tender all over the world. 5. Collecting the First Income Tax and Founding the IRS
Pressed by war to raise funds, Lincoln explored his options under the Constitution and created America’s first ever income tax in 1861. To this point, America was financed through tariffs, bonds, and other taxes. This first ever income tax rate was a 3% flat tax on all income over $600. This was soon changed to a progressive scale where, based on income level, citizens paid either 5%, 3%, or no money at all. Lincoln’s income tax also started the policy of withholding taxes from worker’s pay. Taxes without collection and enforcement don’t produce revenue, so Lincoln also created the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, which became the storied IRS.