Gawd, I hoped this would die but I just have to get a dog in on this now....please excuse On Fri, 26 Jan 1996, Alan Horowitz wrote:
In fact, before FDR, wage income was taxed; however, it was one large check at the end of the yeraar (or the beginning of the next, really).
I think this wrong. Read the definition of "income" before the WWII. Wages were considered to be an equal exchange for labor services rendered, not a "gain" (income).
Sixteenth Amnendment, ratified 1913. I believe it was introduced as the Simmons Tarriff? 1% on incomes over a few k, incremental to 7% for something like 500k. One big check. And income meant the same thing it does now, you know, the numbers without the minus signs: Funk & Wagnalls, 1913 (sorry, no URL) 1. The amount of money coming to a person or corporation within a specified time or regularly (when unqualified, annually), whether as payment for services, interest, or profit from investment; revenue. Webster's 2nd International, 1954 (still no URL, not for the 2nd...) 4. That gain or recurrent benefit (usually measured in money) which proceeds from labor, business, or property; commercial revenue or receipts of any kind.... Now, granted, Funk & Wagnalls went to press before there was such a thing as an income tax...so it's possible that for thirty two years income meant something different, and reverted....
The high cost of WW II made it a necessity for the gvm't to have more money at a particular moment, and not wait for year-end.
Not so. Govt has been able to print fiat money at will since the Fed Reserve was founded in 1913.
Actually, no, they could print fiat money whenever they damn well pleased, same as ever. Reserve notes were originally 60/40 third party (paper) loans to federal gold. True, all of a sudden it was Uncle Sam's name on the notes, but it wasn't just ink.
Technically, the income tax is an excise, not a tax. They aren't the same.
!!!?? Aren't they? Maybe a little bit of squares-rectangles business, but, if so, all excises are taxes.... Websters: ex'cise 2. An inland duty or impost levied upon the manufacture, sale, or consumption of commodities within the country. [...] In the United States the usual <i>excise</i> is a tax on the inland manufacture, sale, or consumption of commodities or for licenses to follow certain occupations, and these taxes are usually called <i>internal revenue taxes</i> wheee, cpt townsend@fly.net