1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this day in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln imposed the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. The country was strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, so Lincoln and Congress agreed to impose a 3% tax on annual incomes over $800. According to documents housed and interpreted by the Library of Congress, Lincoln was particularly concerned about maintaining federal authority over collecting revenue from ports along the southeastern seaboard, which he worried, might fall under the control of the Confederacy. The Revenue Act’s language was broadly written to define income as gain “derived from any kind of property, or from any professional trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere or from any source whatever.” According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the comparable minimum taxable income in 2003, after adjustments for inflation, would have been approximately $16,000. Congress repealed Lincoln’s tax law in 1871, but in 1913 ratified the 16th Amendment, which set in place the federal income-tax system used today.
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