16 Amendment Essay, Research Paper

The amendments were wrote to amend parts of the Constitution of the United States. I have got info in the sixteenth amendment. I will be writing this report in the order that our note taking guide goes.

What the amendment was about: The 16th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, proposed July 12, 1909, ratified in 1913, gives congress the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived and is the basis for all federal income tax legislation, previously the subject of much US Supreme Court controversy.

Article 1, Sections 2 and 9, of the Constitution states that no direct tax may be imposed unless it is apportioned among the states according to population. After the first federal income tax was imposed (1862) during the Civil War, the US Supreme Court upheld it on the grounds that it was not a “direct” tax and so could not be levied without reference to state apportionment. The issue was ultimately resolved by the 16th Amendment, which gives Congress full powers to tax incomes without reference to state apportionment or census.

Immediate ramifications of the ratification: Some immediate ramifications of the ratification was there were a lot of people saying that it was unconstitutional and refused to pay in some cases. Also a lot of people protested that the rich don t pay enough.

Stuff still in the news today: There are still people to this date that think that these income taxes are unconstitutional, and unfair. Also still to this day there are people that try to not pay the tax, I am pretty sure that they hit those guys with prison, or fines.

How this amendment effects me: These income taxes provides me with a police department, fire department, and all sorts of things. So when you think of if you are in favor or not you probably have mixed emotions.

Test case before the supreme court: In the case of Pollock V. Farmers Loan and Trust Co., in 1895, the US Supreme Court declared the first major Federal Income Tax Law unconstitutional. The law, a part of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894, allowed a $4,000 exemption prior to taxing (at a rate of 2 percent) income from rents, interest, dividends, salaries, and profits. Charles Pollock of Massachusetts challenged the constitutionality of the law on the grounds that 1, a tax on income derived from land was, in effect, a tax on the land and therefore a “direct tax” that had to be apportioned among the states according to the population in order to confirm to Article 1, Section 9, of the US Constitution, 2, the $4000 exemption did not meet the Constitutional requirements that all taxes be uniform through the United States, and 3, the tax on state and municipal bonds violated the principle of intergovernmental tax immunity.

The court vote split five to four. Chief Justice Melville Fuller’s majority opinion held that taxes on income from real estate were direct taxes, as were taxes on income from personal property; although taxes on wages and salaries might be permissible, the sections of the law were so mutually connected that the entire scheme of taxation was invalid. The decision speeded the passing of the sixteenth amendment, put in in 1913, which authorized Congress to lay taxes on incomes derived from any source, without regard to apportionment among the states.

When I was first assigned this report I thought it was another ordinary, boring, report that I had to do. It actually was a very interesting subject. It felt good to be learning about what I will be paying in not to long.