welcome to the ancestral findings podcast the 16th amendment to the u.s constitution
establishes a federal income tax there had only been one tax of this type before to pay for the
civil war and it was canceled not long after the end of that war those who supported an income tax
thought it would help lower income individuals by putting the greater tax burden on wealthier people
this is what you need to know about this most contentious of amendments
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the 16th amendment to the u.s constitution is a contentious one and has been since it
was ratified to this day there are people who insist it is not legal based on things said in
the original part of the constitution it is no wonder that this amendment is not a popular one
because it is the amendment that established the federal income tax it is to be expected
that people aren't going to like that and they still don't to this modern day what does it say
the congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived
without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration
what does it mean the 16th amendment allows congress to collect an income tax and use it
for federal purposes without sharing it with the states on the basis of each state's population
which parts of the original constitution says congress must do for any types of taxes
it collects congress passed this amendment in 1909 and was ratified by the required
three-fourth of states in february 1913. the adoption of this amendment overruled
a u.s supreme court decision in the public versus farmers loan and trust company case in 1895 which
essentially ruled an income tax unconstitutional congress made this type of tax constitutional by
adding this amendment to the constitution before this amendment was adopted most of
the money that the federal government earned came from tariffs on imports rather than taxes
from the american populace there was an income tax imposed by the revenue act of 1861 to help
pay for the civil war but this was a self-limiting tax and expired in 1872. even after this tax went
away there were still people and groups who thought an income tax would be a good thing
the populist party which was a late 19th and early 20th century political party desired an income tax
at the federal level the populist party and other groups that supported a federal income tax believe
that tariffs imposed unfair taxes on low-income people they believed that a shift to an income
tax would put the greater burden on paying taxes on wealthier people after the pollen case where
the u.s supreme court ruled that certain types of income if taxed at the federal level would have to
be shared with the states congress abandoned the idea of a federal income tax for a while
they believed that the court would strike down any attempt they made to pass such attacks into law
it was in 1909 during the payne aldridge tariff act debate that congress finally proposed the 16th
amendment initially the republican party believed such an amendment would not be ratified by the
requisite number of states to become part of the constitution but a group of democrats progressive
republicans and other groups who favored an income tax lobbied the state legislators
in favor of the amendment and convinced enough of them to vote to adopt it to the constitution
the amendment was ratified and congress imposed the first federal income tax with the revenue
act of 1913. in 1916 the u.s supreme court upheld the constitutionality of the income tax
in the case of brush abber versus union pacific railroad company
the federal government has levied a federal income tax ever since that first one in 1913. thanks
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