Union Imposes Income Tax . . .

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This Day in History August 2, 1861,  Union Imposes Income Tax

On this day, August 2, 1861, Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act.  This is a direct violation of the Constitution.  Although, an overwhelming numbers of Northerners controlled Congress, they chose not to free the slaves but to raise taxes.

U.S. Constitution. Article I, section 9 provides: "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken."   Income taxes are direct taxes.  Because they were not apportioned among the states, they are  unconstitutional.  Any tax that falls on the taxpayer is a direct tax.  Adam Smith, a leading authority on political economy during the framing of the Constitution, wrote that a tax on a person's revenue was a direct tax.

To administer the Lincoln's evil income taxes, the act established the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue.  The Commissioner was given the power to assess, levy, and collect taxes, and the right to enforce the tax laws through seizure of property and income, as well as through prosecution

In 1861, Lincoln had begun to finance the federal government's malicious war against the South.  Lincoln was particularly concerned about maintaining federal authority over collecting revenue from ports along the Southern seaboard, which were under Confederate control.  Strapped for cash with which to pursue Lincoln's War, Congress imposes a graduated annual income tax.  This is just few years after the Communist Manifesto calls for "a progressive or graduated income tax."

Congress repealed Lincoln's tax law in 1871.  In 1909, the 16th Amendment of the US Constitution is passed, which sets in place the federal income tax system imposed us today.