I was strolling around the Internet and stumbled across a copy of the very first federal income tax return (PDF).
The Sixteenth Amendment imposed a federal income tax on individuals and was ratified by the states on February 3, 1913.
It provides that,
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.
The effective date of the Amendment was March 1, 1913 making the first income tax return a short-year return for the period March 1, 1913 through December 31, 1913.
Here are a few other interesting things I noted about the seminal 1040:
- The Internal Revenue Service was then called The Internal Revenue Bureau
- The failure to file penalty was fixed at an amount from $20 to $1,000
- A taxpayer needed to complete only 8 lines to determine his tax liability
- The tax rate on the first $20,000 was 1% (according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator $20,000 in 1913 is the rough equivalent of $432,000 today)
- The top marginal rate, for people who made more than $500,000 a year was 6% ($500,000 in 1913 dollars = $10,800,000 today)
We may not be happy about the passage of the 16th amendment, but don’t those tax rates look refreshing?
Here’s a recap of some other cool (and not so cool) stuff that happened back in 1913:
- February 19th – The first prize was inserted into a Cracker Jack Box (first sold)
- March 15th – Woodrow Wilson held the first Presidential press conference
- May 7th – British House of Commons denied women the right to vote
- May 31st – The 17th Amendment was ratified providing that Senators shall be elected by popular vote
- October 7th – Henry Ford instituted the moving assembly line
- October 27th – President Wilson declared that the United States would never attack another country
- November 13th – The first modern elastic brassiere was patented by Mary Phelps Jacob
- December 16th -The first crossworld puzzle (with 32 clues) was published in the New York World
- December 21st – Charlie Chaplin began his Hollywood movie career at a salary of $150 a week
- December 21rd – President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law
1 response so far ↓
1 Kafka // Jun 28, 2009 at 9:15 am
Ah you are correct, though many suggest that the 16th amendment was not properly ratified by all the states necessary to allow the government to confiscate income from the commoners. What is much more interesting is 1913 is the very same year the Politicos enacted the laws allowing for the Federal Reserve, the greatest public/private Ponzi scheme ever known to man. In one fell swoop, the Politicos could confiscate income from commoners (something the much vaunted forefathers slaughtered the Britts over when the rate was about 5%) and print money out of thin air (now it is just electronic debits and credits). In fact if one makes $150k or less and adds up all governmental taxes, about 70% of income is confiscated, I am sure the forefathers are very proud of what they created. Note in the last 9 months the Fed has printed about $1.3 Trillion and “guaranteed” another $8 Trillion or so.
Leave a Comment