US Income Tax 1861

About US Income Tax 1861

The first US federal income tax was enacted in 1861 to fund the Civil War. The Revenue Act of 1861 imposed a 3 percent tax on incomes over 800. The tax was difficult to collect and was revised in 1862, creating the first progressive income tax with rates of 3 percent on incomes over 600 and 5 percent on incomes over 10,000. The 1862 act also created the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The income tax was allowed to expire in 1872. The Supreme Court upheld the Civil War income tax in Springer v United States 1881. When Congress tried to restore the income tax in 1894, the Supreme Court struck it down in Pollock v Farmers Loan and Trust Co. The 16th Amendment, ratified in 1913, finally made the income tax permanent.