February 13, 2013 marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the federal income tax which gave the federal government the power to impose the federal income tax. It's hard to imagine that at one point in American history there wasn't such a day as April 15th when all Americans' income tax returns were due to the government. Prior to 100 years ago, there was a brief period in American history when a federal income tax was used to help fund the Civil War, but otherwise taxes were collected by means of tariffs and excise taxes. Tariffs were taxes on imported goods. Excise taxes are similar to the modern day sales taxes. They were collected on goods such as carriages, whiskey, and horses, for example. The excise tax was an indirect tax. Prior to the 16th amendment, the federal government was much smaller. Due to the ratification of the 16th amendment, the government has really grown in scope and size as a result of this tool. The income tax amendment was one of the tenets of the Progressive movement and it affects us to this very day. It's given the federal government the opportunity to pit one class of Americans against another class of Americans. It's the 'rich' vs. 'poor' argument. As former Supreme Court Justice John Marshall said in the famous McCulloch vs. Maryland case, "The power to tax is the power to destroy."
To read the entire article, click on the above link from the New American.
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