As government policy analysts and careful observers of history know, once taxes or surcharges are introduced, they rarely are repealed. Taxes in the U.S. began with excise internal taxes on distilled spirits, carriages, refined sugar, tobacco and real estate and human property (slaves), to help replenish the treasury after the Revolutionary war, and then spread to jewelry and other products. The Civil War brought income taxes, legitimized by the passage of Amendment XVI, which made income tax a fixture.

On this day November 3, 1913, the details to the Sixteenth Amendment were finalized and published to the taxpayers. Most taxpayers paid 1% of their annual income, with the rate for the wealthiest citizens at 7%.

Initially the income taxes were tolerated as a necessity to fund the Civil War, but at war’s end the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional because the revenue was not apportioned between the states. In response, the U.S. passed the income tax amendment, essentially addressing the Supreme Court by adding income tax law to the constitution.