USA
91 entries
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773, when American colonists dumped 342 chests of Bri...
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 to 1794 was a protest against the first federal excise tax in the Unit...
US Income Tax 1861
The first US federal income tax was enacted in 1861 to fund the Civil War. The Revenue Act of 1861 i...
16th Amendment
The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1913, gave Congress the power to lay and coll...
Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the central banking system of the United States. While not a...
Reagan Tax Cut 1981
The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, signed by President Reagan, was the largest tax cut in US his...
Trump Tax Cut 2017
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was the most significant US tax reform since 1986. The act reduced...
Bush Tax Cuts 2001
The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Rec...
Al Capone Tax Evasion
Al Capone was Americas most notorious gangster, running a vast criminal empire in Chicago during Pro...
Leona Helmsley
Leona Helmsley, known as the Queen of Mean, was a New York hotel magnate. Helmsley was convicted of ...
Wesley Snipes
Actor Wesley Snipes was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal tax returns...
IRS Creation
The Internal Revenue Service was created in 1862 as the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Reven...
Laffer Curve
The Laffer Curve is a theoretical representation of the relationship between tax rates and tax reven...
Haig Simons Income
The Haig Simons definition of income, developed by economists Robert Murray Haig and Henry C Simons ...
Excise Tax Whiskey
Excise taxes are taxes on specific goods produced or sold within a country. The US excise tax on whi...
Estate Tax US
The US federal estate tax was enacted in 1916. The tax is levied on the transfer of property at deat...
Capital Gains Tax History
The US capital gains tax was established in 1921, setting preferential rates for long term capital g...
Corporate Tax History
The US corporate income tax was enacted in 1909 as a 1 percent excise tax on corporate income. The t...
Sales Tax USA
Sales taxes in the United States are imposed by state and local governments. The first state sales t...
Tax Filers Season
The US tax filing season runs from January to April 15 each year. Approximately 160 million individu...
FATCA Reporting
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, enacted in 2010, requires foreign financial institutions to ...
Property Tax USA
Property taxes in the United States are levied by local governments, primarily counties, municipalit...
Proposition 13 California
California Proposition 13, passed in 1978, was a landmark property tax limitation. The initiative ca...
Earned Income Tax Credit
The Earned Income Tax Credit, enacted in 1975, is a refundable tax credit for low to moderate income...
Child Tax Credit
The Child Tax Credit was enacted in 1997 at 400 per child. The credit was gradually increased over t...
FICA Payroll Tax
FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax, funds Social Security and Medicare. The Social Se...
Self Employment Tax
Self employed individuals pay both the employer and employee portions of FICA, totaling 15.3 percent...
State Income Tax
State income taxes vary dramatically across the United States. Wisconsin was the first state to impl...
Amazon No Tax
Amazon famously paid no federal income tax for years despite generating billions in profit. In 2017 ...
Tax Protestor Movement
The tax protestor movement in the United States argues that the federal income tax is illegal, uncon...
Tax Day April 15
April 15 has been the deadline for filing US federal income tax returns since 1955. Before 1955, the...
Tax Refund Anticipation
Refund anticipation loans, or RALs, were short term loans secured by a taxpayers expected refund. RA...
Tax Preparation Industry
The US tax preparation industry generates over 14 billion annually. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, i...
IRS Free File
The IRS Free File program was created in 2002 through an agreement between the IRS and the tax prepa...
GAO Tax Gap
The US tax gap is the difference between taxes owed and taxes collected on time. The IRS estimates t...
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress met in New York City in October 1765, bringing together delegates from nine c...
Tariff of Abominations
The Tariff of 1828 was a protective tariff that imposed high duties on imported goods. Southern stat...
Morrill Tariff
The Morrill Tariff of 1861 was a high protective tariff passed just before the Civil War. The tariff...
Smoot Hawley Tariff
The Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 raised US tariffs to their highest levels in history. The averag...
Section 301 Tariffs
Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the US to impose tariffs on countries that engage in unf...
FairTax Proposal
The FairTax is a proposal to replace all US federal taxes with a 23 percent national sales tax on al...
IRS Funding Debate
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided 80 billion in additional IRS funding over 10 years. The...
Equifax Data Breach IRS
In 2017, the IRS awarded Equifax a 7.25 million contract to help verify taxpayer identities. This wa...
Tax Reform Act 1986
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was the most comprehensive US tax reform of the 20th century. The act was...
Pelosi Stock Trading
The STOCK Act of 2012 prohibited members of Congress from using nonpublic information for personal i...
Oliver Wendell Holmes Tax
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr wrote in Compania General de Tabacos v Collector of I...
Shays Rebellion Tax
Shays Rebellion was an armed uprising in Massachusetts in 1786 and 1787. Farmers in western Massachu...
Fries Rebellion
Fries Rebellion, also called the House Tax Rebellion, occurred in Pennsylvania in 1799. German Ameri...
Whiskey Tax Resistance
Resistance to the whiskey tax was particularly strong in western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tenness...
Tariff Nullification
South Carolinas nullification of federal tariffs in 1832 was the most serious challenge to federal a...
Stamp Act Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were organized in 1765 to resist the Stamp Act. The group was founded in Boston ...
Tea Party Ship Dartmouth
The Boston Tea Party targeted three ships carrying East India Company tea: the Dartmouth, the Eleano...
Tax Revolt California Jarvis
The California tax revolt of 1978 was led by Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann. Their initiative, Proposit...
Reagan Tax Reform
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was signed by President Reagan on October 22, 1986. The act was the resul...
Clinton Tax Increase
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, signed by President Clinton, raised the top individua...
Tax Cut JFK
President Kennedy proposed a major tax cut in 1963 to stimulate the economy. The Revenue Act of 1964...
Bush Tax Cut 2008
The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 provided tax rebates to approximately 130 million American househo...
Obama Tax Cut Payroll
The payroll tax cut of 2011 temporarily reduced the employee portion of the Social Security tax from...
Tax Loss Harvesting
Tax loss harvesting is the practice of selling investments at a loss to offset capital gains and red...
R&D Tax Credit
The Research and Experimentation Tax Credit was enacted in 1981 to encourage corporate research spen...
SALT Deduction Cap
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 capped the state and local tax SALT deduction at 10,000. Previousl...
Opportunity Zones
Opportunity Zones were created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to encourage investment in low i...
Tax Court History
The United States Tax Court was established in 1942 as a replacement for the Board of Tax Appeals, w...
IRS Whistleblower
The IRS Whistleblower Program pays informants who report tax evasion. The program traces its roots t...
Gift Tax History
The US gift tax was enacted in 1924 to prevent taxpayers from avoiding the estate tax by giving away...
Generation Skipping Tax
The generation skipping transfer tax GST was enacted in 1986 to prevent families from avoiding estat...
Qualified Business Income
The Qualified Business Income deduction, also known as Section 199A or the pass through deduction, w...
Net Investment Income Tax
The Net Investment Income Tax NIIT was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and took e...
Tax Withholding System
The US tax withholding system was introduced by the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943. Before withhold...
Alternative Minimum Tax
The Alternative Minimum Tax was enacted in 1969 after Treasury Secretary Joseph Barr revealed that 1...
Earned Income Credit Fraud
The Earned Income Tax Credit has one of the highest improper payment rates of any federal program, e...
Tax Scams Phone
IRS impersonation phone scams became a major problem starting around 2010. Scammers call taxpayers c...
Tax Identity Theft
Tax identity theft occurs when someone uses a stolen Social Security number to file a fraudulent tax...
Free Tax Filing War
The battle over free tax filing in the US has been ongoing for two decades. In 2002, the IRS created...
Stanley v Illinois Tax
While not a tax case in the traditional sense, Stanley v Illinois 1972 established important princip...
Tax Exempt Organizations
Tax exempt organizations in the US include charities, religious organizations, educational instituti...
Form 1040 History
Form 1040 is the standard US individual income tax return. The first Form 1040 was introduced in 191...
Tax Day Emancipation
During the Civil War, Congress enacted the first federal income tax in 1861, but it was largely unco...
IRS Direct File
IRS Direct File launched as a pilot program in 12 states for the 2024 filing season. Direct File is ...
State Tax Competition
US states compete for businesses and residents through tax policy. States without income tax, like T...
Amazon HQ2 Tax Breaks
Amazon announced its second headquarters, HQ2, in 2017, inviting cities to compete with tax incentiv...
Foxconn Wisconsin Tax Deal
In 2017, Foxconn announced a 10 billion display factory in Wisconsin, promoted by President Trump an...
Negative Income Tax
Negative income tax NIT was proposed by economist Milton Friedman in his 1962 book Capitalism and Fr...
Haig Simmons Definition Detail
The Haig Simons definition of income provides the theoretical benchmark for comprehensive income tax...
Tax Expenditures
Tax expenditures are revenue losses from tax deductions, credits, and exclusions. The concept was de...
Inheritance Tax USA Debate
The US estate tax, nicknamed the death tax by opponents, has been politically contentious since its ...
Capital Gains Realization
The debate over taxing unrealized capital gains intensified in 2021 when Senator Ron Wyden proposed ...
Buy Borrow Die
Buy borrow die is a tax avoidance strategy used by ultra wealthy Americans. The strategy works as fo...
IRS Audits Decline
IRS audit rates have declined dramatically since 2010. The audit rate for individual taxpayers fell ...
IRS Customer Service
IRS customer service reached its worst point during the COVID pandemic. In 2022, the IRS answered on...
Property Tax Assessment Bias
Property tax assessments in the United States have been found to systematically over assess low valu...