The Introduction of Income Tax

President Lincoln comes up with a plan to help pay for the Union's fight in the Civil War.  A plan we're still not fond of to this day. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Income tax we'll discuss says we took a bite out
of history with Ingles markets. In eighteen sixty one, the
United States was involved in the bloody Civil War after
the Southern States seceded from the Union. President Abraham Lincoln
was afraid the ports along the southeast shore line would
fall to the Confederates. This would hinder the federal government
from collecting revenue that was desperately needed for the war effort.
Lincoln had a plan. He consulted with his cabinet members

(00:21):
on the ability of the president to impose a tax
on the people to collect duties on their income. It
was decided that he would need to petition Congress, and
the Revenue Act was born. On August fifth, eighteen sixty one.
Lincoln signed the Act into law. A very broad act,
it allowed tax to be collected from gains quote derived
from any kind of property, or from any professional trade, employment,
or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere,

(00:43):
or from any source whatever. As the war ended, Lincoln
was assassinated and reconstruction began. The Act was questioned. Congress
repealed the law in eighteen seventy one, but in nineteen
oh nine passed the Sixteenth Amendment, which defined the federal
income tax system that we still use today. This has
been a bite out of history with ingles markets