"Congress passed an income tax to fund the Civil War in 1862 but allowed it to expire a decade later. In 1894, it passed another — a 2 percent flat-rate income tax that kicked in at today’s equivalent of $110,000.
It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because it was not apportioned among the states, as the U.S. Constitution required.
Then, during the Progressive era, supporters of the tax passed the 16th Amendment, giving Congress the power to tax income, and in 1913 Congress approved a tax with a series of rates ranging from 2 to 7 percent.
But high personal exemptions meant that fewer than one out of every 50 Americans owed any tax at all."
The federal tax code is one gigantic mess that no one understand. There are too many rules or too many people not paying any taxes.
It's time to take the next step and for a flat tax, or a simple tax that everyone pays & understands.
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