It happens every April. That’s the end of tax season, when
the Internal Revenue Service asks all hard-working Americans to hand over a
portion of their pay-check to support the multi-billion dollar government.
Most citizens have been giving money all year long. A
certain amount is taken out of every paycheck to help finance the government.
Some people even give too much, and have to get reimbursed after they sit down
and figure out exactly how much they owe. In the end, income tax accounts for
about 85% of the total capital of the United States government.
But it hasn’t always been that way. The United States originally reserved income tax only for emergencies. One of those
emergencies was the Civil War. From 1860 to 1865, bills ran up high for both
the Union forces and the Confederates. Troops had to be fed, trained, clothed,
transported, and supplied with weapons. All of that cost money.
The Union forces issued an income tax in 1864 to help pay
for the costs of the war. At the time, the average person probably didn’t stop
to think that the income tax was here to stay. During the Civil War, citizens
were so used to rationing goods and making sacrifices that paying the tax just
seemed like another inconvenience.
Issuing a federal income tax meant that there had to be a
certain amount of authority and coordination at the national level.
Ironically, a main cause of the Civil War was the abuse of authority by the
federal government. The southern states had seceded from the Union when they
felt that their state’s rights were being trampled.
Unfortunately for the South, this distrust of the federal
government made it difficult to fight a war. The Confederate states resented
any central authority telling them what to do, which made it hard at times to
coordinate a central army.
The Union forces were victorious in the Civil War, and the
Confederate states were ultimately forced to recognize the federal government.
Even so, the income tax did not become a permanent part of American society—at
least not yet.
The federal income tax was repealed only a few years after
the Civil War. Courts ruled that it was unconstitutional, and that the
national government was overstepping its authority when it dipped into the
annual income of the American people in times of peace. Unfortunately for
taxpayers, this ruling was eventually overruled.
In 1913, the 16th amendment to the Constitution
was ratified, making it legal for the government to issue a federal income
tax. There has been a steady income tax ever since. Recently, there has been
talk of eliminating income tax, and replacing it with a national sales tax (i.e.
you pay a little to the federal government every time you buy a candy bar,
computer, or new car). There will be plenty of debate, however, before
this radical plan is put into action.
