The 16th Amendment was passed by the 61st Congress on July 12, 1909, and ratified on February 3, 1913. This Amendment overruled Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. case in 1895 which limited the authorization of the Congress to collect an income tax. It states 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.”
Before the ratification of this Amendment, the Congress could not collect a direct tax. The Congress was concerning about allowing wealthy people to have too much money because it could increase a gap between rich and poor. This Amendment became the base of income tax we pay today and created the distribution of the wealth.
Image from The National Archives: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=57
I don’t see how income tax can distribute wealth. In fact, even these days, rich people are not even paying taxes.
This document fails to explain why it should be CONGRESS that receives the tax. If the tax is there to help the distribution of welth, should the money not go into a money-distributing system, instead of sitting in an account with Congress?
By the 16th Amendment of US Constitution, Congress get the power collect tax from people. The main purpose of this amendment was to reduce the gap between rich and poor. But if poor people give both state tax and federal tax, how the difference between rich and poor will be decline?
In Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court declared certain taxes on incomes — such as those from property under the 1894 Act — to be unconstitutionally unapportioned direct taxes. The Court reasoned that a tax on income from property should be treated as a tax on “property by reason of its ownership” and so should be required to be apportioned. The reasoning was that taxes on the rents from land, the dividends from stocks and so on burdened the property generating the income in the same way that a tax on “property by reason of its ownership” burdened that property.
The Sixteenth Amendment overruled the effect of Pollock. That means the Congress may impose taxes on income from any source without having to apportion the total dollar amount of tax collected from each state according to each state’s population in relation to the total national population.
On July 4 1776 United States became a independent country, the congress has no power to collect tax from states, the congress passed bill to collect excise taxes, triaffs,duties.After Civil was the federal government needs more money to support the growing federal government.
It needs the new fund to cover the gap.
Finally the 16th Amendment has been pass in 1909, it gave the Congress more power to collect income tax from people in United States.
I am wondering what was the reasons that made the Congress wanted to collect taxes from general people?Poors are always more than riches.That means more harms were created than beneficials.Did people have rights/chances to reject it?
Did the 16th Amendment have specific guides about how much tax we need to pay? For example, high income people were required to pay more tax than low income people or certain low level income people don’t need to pay tax.