United States Income Tax

The United States Income tax was permanently instituted as recently as 1913, with the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment gave Congress legal authority to permanently levy income and resulted in legislation that taxed both individuals and corporations. Prior to this amendment the United States government was supported by taxes on specific items such as spirits, sugar, and tariffs on imported goods. There were short-lived episodes of income taxation during the civil war and in the mid 1890's.

Revenue collections jumped with the implementation of the income tax and reached $1 billion for the first time in 1918. The withholding tax on wages was instituted in 1943 and led to collections reaching $43 billion by 1945. Tax legislation in recent years increased in frequency with significant changes in the tax code occurring in 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. Some of the legislation resulted in increases and some of it in decreases to gross revenue collections. In 2004 the IRS collected over $2 trillion dollars.

The result of this evolving tax code is the fantastically complex code we have today. Today's tax laws are so complicated that unless your financial affairs are extremely simple you will need the help of a tax professional.

At BusinessAccountant.com we have highly skilled tax professionals available to assist you. Allow us to help you navigate the tax code and we will most likely save you more money than our services cost.

There is no advantage in paying more income tax than the law demands.