Thursday Open Line


Income taxes first came to America 154 years ago this month, when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill levying a 3 percent tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000, and 5 percent for greater incomes. The tax was rescinded in 1872. The income tax all of us know today dates to 1913, when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. About 147 million individual income tax returns are submitted annually, reporting tax revenues totaling over $1.6 trillion. There are over 31,000 tax preparation offices around the nation. These services employ nearly 200,000 people engaged in figuring out the personal or business taxes owed. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.