Today is tax day – the 15th of April. If you need any last minute information you can find a lot of information here at Internal Revenue Service’s website IRS TAX. Hope everyone got their IRS 1040 and California 540 tax returns filed on time. Our current income tax system has been in effect since the United States Congress (website) ratified the 16th Amendment in 1913. The following single sentence in our constitution is the genesis of the most dreaded day for most Americans:
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 16th amendment to the United States Constitution was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the 61st Congress on the 12th of July, 1909, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 25th of February, 1913, to have been ratified by 36 of the 48 States. Ratification was completed on February 3, 1913.
Back in 1913 income tax forms were only 2 pages long. For some of us, it still is. President Obama’s 2008 tax return was 43 pages long (including state return).