Tax Day in the U.S. is April 18?

This week?Tax Day in the United States occurs which is??always an inauspicious date.?Every April 15th, millions of otherwise upbeat and proactive citizens wait to the very last minute before submitting to inevitable long arm of the taxman.?Entire cottage industries of tax attorneys and Certified Public Accountants owe their very existence to this date.?This year we await the rival of 87,000 new IRS employees and wonder what will be the inevitable outcome.?

It should be noted that in 2023 the actually filing date is Tuesday, April 18th.?That is because April 15th falls on a Saturday this year and the following Monday is Emancipation Day, a recognized holiday in Washington D.C.?Most, however, will still consider the 15th the day of reckoning with the taxman.?

Concepts of income tax have been changing in the United States, as elsewhere, for hundreds of years. “President Lincoln established the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 1862, the direct predecessor of today’s IRS. Originally, those considered wealthy, with incomes above $10,000 were taxed at a 5% rate while 3% were the standard for incomes above $600. Individuals earning under $600 a year were exempt. Tax collectors were paid a commission of 4% on all money collected up to $100,000 and 2% above that level. These actions lead to widespread abuse and corruption. By 1863, the Bureau of Internal Revenue was firmly entrenched as a strong arm of the Central American government, employing an army of four thousand. Only three years later, however, Congress appointed a Special Revenue Commission charged with reforming the scandal-ridden bureau.?In 1872, the income tax was repealed.”[1]

Politicians and the public have long struggled with the idea of income tax and what is a fair amount to pay the government to maintain services.?Income tax in the United States would not reappear, in earnest until the early twentieth century.?“Income tax was seen as being the most efficient means to keep capitalists and monopolists from amassing huge fortunes. Theodore Roosevelt denounced such wealth in 1906 as fortunes swollen beyond all healthy limits.”[2]

Prior to that, the United States Supreme Court issued an exceptionally noteworthy ruling in 1895.?The court ruled on a suit brought about by wealthy tax protesters; their claim was that income tax was unconstitutional, as it was not proportioned among all citizens.?In other words, a direct tax on the people would have to be equal.?This political positioning went back and forth until October 3, 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the first personal income tax since the Civil War. Our current income tax can be directly traced to this legislation.?Surprisingly, however, the tax law passed at that time was only fourteen pages long, in comparison to the almost incomprehensible code that stands today.

Whether or not one files on April 15th or April 18th this year, many US citizens will be feeling anxiety over the next week as tax season begins.

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[1]Shelley L. Davis, “Unbridled Power” p.190

[5]Ibid., p.192