Brief History of Taxes in America Shocking
Brief History of Taxes in America Shocking Thursday, February 19, 2015 12:18 The History Of Taxes In The U.S. By Amy Fontinelle The plethora of taxes we pay today – federal income tax, alternative minimum tax , corporate tax, estate tax, FICA , and so on – didn’t always exist. America’s first citizens enjoyed few to no taxes, and taxes were added, increased and occasionally (and often temporarily) repealed to give us the tax regime we have today. Let’s explore the origins of some of the more common taxes we face today. When Were Taxes Implemented? Most of the taxes we pay today have been around for less than half of our country’s history. One of the oldest is the estate tax ,which was enacted in 1797, but was then repealed and reinstituted over the years, often in response to the need to finance wars. The modern estate tax was implemented in 1916 and the gift tax came about in 1924. The federal income tax was enacted in 1913, and corporate income taxes were enacted slightly earlie...