Page 87 - Book8E

CHAPTER 9
April or Not— It's Always Tax Time
Like it or not, income tax is with us every day. Whether you paid your income taxes weeks ago or you're getting ready to pay them now, your daily financial activity is effecting what will be due at the end of your next tax year.
Did you know income tax, as we know it today, has only been with us since 1913? The first Form 1040 had a total of only 19 questions and one page of instructions—much dif-
ferent than the complicated forms and
bulky booklets of today.
The concept of income tax was first
introduced in America as a way to raise
money to help pay for the cost of the Civil
War. A law creating a Commissioner of
Internal Revenue was signed by President
Abraham Lincoln. Wage earners making
between $600 and $10,000 paid 3%
income tax and those making more than $10,000 paid a 5% income tax. After a lot of public complaint about the tax, the rate was reduced in 1867 and repealed completely in 1872. A second attempt was made to collect income taxes in 1894, but the tax was declared unconstitu- tional just a year later by the Supreme Court.
President Taft suggested an amendment to the Constitution in 1909 that would allow the Federal Government to collect a tax on the income of each citizen based on standard rates across the country.
Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.
—Arthur Rubinstein
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