The
Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever
source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without
regard to any census or enumeration.
The 16th amendment was proposed on July 12,
1909, and ratified on February 3, 1913, but why was it necessary, didn’t the
Constitution already give the Congress the right to tax the people?
Article 1, section 8
begins with “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties,
Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and
general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall
be uniform throughout the United States” wasn’t that enough?
The short answer was no, but let’s look at why.
To begin with, Article 1, section 8, clause 1 is not the
only reference to taxation in the Constitution.
Article 1, section 2, clause 2 limits the types of taxes and how they
are apportioned when it says, “…direct taxes will be apportioned among the
several states…” Section 9 clause 4, “No
Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the
Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” And clause 5
continues, “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.” It was the section 9, clause 4 that became
problematic as the government grew and the cost of government increased.
There had been time in the past when to fund the cost of
war income taxes had been levied (i.e. war of 1812 and the Civil War), but they
were both finite in their duration. In
1895, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), heard the case of
Charles Pollock versus Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company which seems to be the
actual event leading to the decision to amend the constitution.
In this case, Mr. Pollock, of Massachusetts, “argued that
while state-regulated income taxes were considered to be direct taxes, they
were not subject to apportionment; as a result, Pollock argued that
unapportioned, state-regulated direct taxes were in the direct violation of the
Constitution.”[i] In its opinion - SCOTUS upheld Mr. Pollock’s
claim.
The idea of an income tax and the amendment itself was
supported by the southern and many of the northeastern states, but was opposed
by the western half of the country. It
was also opposed by many Republican politicians based on the concerns of
their wealthy supporters.
With the passage of the 16th Amendment we opened
up a new revenue source for the government, and enabled a growth in government bureaucracy
to what we have today.
1 comment:
Love the lessons, John! I have a book on the Constitution from the Heritage Foundation that I read when I have a constitutional question. I have said for several years that the "People", originally the Tea Partiers and I guess now the Trumpsters, should take up a serious national effort to Repeal the 16th Amendment by State Legislature movement. Get talk radio and alternative media behind it to gain momentum. When the Tipping Point is near, the Movement says to Congress "We will stand down on one condition: Congress will pass a Constitutional Amendment for Congressional Term Limits now!" I believe it is the only tactic that will ever help us establish term limits to defeat the Real Enemy in Washington: lifelong politicians in Washington! The first Americans wrote about it when they commented on ratification of the Constitution in the 1780's. They worried of a political class that would never leave the Potomac! How right they were to worry....
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