| Every year, millions of Americans dread the inevitable; | | | | burden. |
| they have to gather all of their receipts and records | | | | An interesting event that occurred during formation of |
| and get ready to file their Federal Income Tax Returns. | | | | income taxation laws in America occurred during 1918. |
| When was tax season first initiated? Here, we will | | | | Up until then, a lot of revenue for government funding |
| take a look at that magic day of April 15 and why it | | | | came from alcoholic beverage sales. Then came |
| was chosen as tax day. | | | | Prohibition. |
| During Abraham Lincolns presidency in the 1860s, were | | | | In 1919, Congress passed an amendment to the |
| first legally required to pay income taxes. The | | | | Constitution that made it illegal to manufacture or sell |
| President and Congress created the Commissioner of | | | | alcohol. In order to replace that lost revenue, income |
| Revenue and enacted a Federal Income Tax law in | | | | tax was the proposed solution, and despite the repeal |
| order to fund the costly Civil War. | | | | of Prohibition, we have been paying income taxes |
| The original deadline for submitting your income taxes | | | | ever since. |
| was March 1, not April 15. It was in 1918 when the | | | | When the Revenue Act of 1942 was passed and the |
| Congress pushed the date out to March 15. Then in | | | | New Deal era was begun, government control and |
| 1954, the date was once again moved, this time to | | | | expenditures has continued to increase exponentially, |
| April 15, the date we still know as tax day. | | | | and today the American taxpayer supports a |
| If you are an individual taxpayer, you are required to | | | | multi-trillion dollar National Debt. |
| file either a return or an extension (Form 4868) by April | | | | Currently, all the tax regulations for this country are |
| 15. Corporate and other legal group entities must file | | | | under the management of the Internal Revenue |
| their tax return or an extension by March 15. The | | | | Service, in which there are four major division: Wage |
| extension merely gives you extra time to file your tax | | | | and Investment, Small/Business Self-Employed, Large |
| return, not extra time to pay if you owe. | | | | and Midsize Business, and Tax Exempt and |
| For some years after World War 2, the tax burden | | | | Government. Each division governs the taxpayers and |
| was shared relatively equally by the corporate world | | | | the laws as they are relevant to their particular |
| and the individual taxpayer. Today, the shift seems to | | | | department. |
| be toward the individual carrying the load of the tax | | | | |