Income Tax History

Thanks to Robert Mertz of Parrot Communications, I am reading a book titled America’s Coming Tax Revolt. Here is an interesting quote from Chapter 1:

“The total cost of administering the Colonies then was about $2 million a year, or 67 cents per person per year. When our nation was founded, the federal government spent about $3 million a year – about $1 per person. By 1910, after 120 years of operation, our federal government spent just over $600 million – about $6.75 per person… The tax explosion began with the federal income tax introduced in 1913 through the Sixteenth Amendment… By 1929 the federal government was spending $3 billion per year. Today it is spending $3 billion per day (over $4000 per person per year).”

Amazingly, this little book, published in 1992, sounds as if it were written two months ago. Had it been, the last sentance in the above quote would read: “Today it is quickly approaching $10 billion per day (over $11,500 per person per year).”

As I yearn for an end to the unconstitutional, unjust income tax and government theivery, I wonder: what was life like before 1913 and what is the history behind the creation of the IRS? Gotta do more research, but here are some quick facts:

• April 15th has not always been the filing deadline. March 1st was the date specified by Congress in 1913, after the passage of the 16th amendment. In 1918 Congress pushed the date forward to March 15th, where it remained until the tax overhaul of 1954, when the date was again moved ahead to April 15th.
• The original income tax rate set after the 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913 was 1%, applicable to those earning over $3,000 per year, with a 6% surcharge on incomes over $500,000 per year (in today’s dollars, equivalent to $61,000 and $10 million, respectively).
• The original IRS form 1040 was four pages, including instructions. In 2007, the instructions alone were 92 pages.

Reference: http://www.taxhistory.org/