Comments on: Some IRS History. . .

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:30:32 +0000

War Revenue Act of 1917
The deduction for charitable contributions is one of the oldest deduction provisions in the tax laws. Although an attempt to enact a deduction for gifts to “religious, charitable, scientific, or educational” institutions in 1913 was unsuccessful, such a provision was included in the War Revenue Act of 1917. It provided a deduction for:

Contributions or gifts actually made within the year to corporations or associations organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes, or to societies for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net income of which inures to the benefit of any private stockholder or individual, to an amount not in excess of fifteen per centum of the taxpayer’s taxable net income as computed without the benefit of this paragraph. Such contributions or gifts shall be allowable as deductions only if verified under rules and regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:02:27 +0000

Does anyone know when did the IRS tax codes allow for deductions on charitable giving?

By: Issue #2: Dr. Tax-O-Sphere, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tax Code

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:07:55 +0000

[...] Some IRS History by Bruce the taxguy – I have sent emails out to tax dodgers Wesley Snipes, Larken Rose and Irwin [...]

By: Wm

Wm — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:06:23 +0000

Dear Taxguy,
Although the Constitution did authorize the government to levy taxes in Article 1 Section 8 you will notice that the imposition of a federal direct or capitation tax imposed on the citizens of the States was expressly forbidden in Article 1 Section 9, unless apportioned among the states in accordance with the Census. The wording is odd but you will notice that the Sixteenth Amendment contradicts this wording entirely.

The intent of the Founders was clear. As I understand it they were opposed to the Federal government being able to tax the citizens of the states. Also the powers granted to the Feds was limited to those powers designated in Article 1 Section 8 and certain powers were explicitly excluded in Section 9.

Notice that only coin was to be money not a paper currency which was not redeemable in coins of gold or silver. See Murray Rothbard’s The Case Against the Fed to be found at world wide web dot mises.org the site of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

The attempt for there to be an income tax by Lincoln during the Civil was thwarted by the Supreme Court chief justice who made it clear that as long as he lived there would be an identical decision regarding any attempt to impose an income tax. The politicians waited until he died about 1910 and passed the Income tax amendment, the Sixteenth, in 1913.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:35:27 +0000

An interesting look back. Learnt something new today! Wish we still had those 1% taxes nowadays, but I think the government wasn’t really funding much in the early 1900′s.

New site is coming along nicely.