16th Amendment

Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.

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.

Breakdown...

Basic meaning:

1. Congress is allowed to collect some of the money earned by people working in the United States.
2. It doesn’t matter where the money is earned, as long as it is “income."
3. There is no need to share the revenue with the states.
4. The census, a count of all the people that live in the United States that happens every ten years, can’t be used as a basis for distributing taxes on people.

Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.

• Allows the federal government to collect an income tax from all Americans.
• Individuals and cooporations will be taxed without reguard to population.
• States can tax individuals however they want.

Case:

Pollock v. Farmers Loan and Trust Co. 1895


A Massachusetts stockholder named Charles Pollock, worked for the Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. He appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after  trying to sue his work for filing returns for and paying a federal income tax. This tax was levied with the profits that his work earned, including interest it received from income-producing real estate and bonds of New York City. Pollock said that such a tax, authorized by the Income Tax Act of 1894, was unconstitutional because it was a direct tax upon the property itself (28 Stat. 509). Article I, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution mandated that all direct taxes be apportioned among the several states and Section 8 of the same article required that direct taxes be uniform. Pollock argued and the Supreme Court agreed that this tax did not satisfy either requirement. The tax was levied upon the rents or income of real property held by particular corporations and businesses and was, in effect, a direct tax upon the real property itself. The United States had no constitutional power to tax either state instrumentalities or property.
 The Supreme Court ruled that the Income Tax Act of 1894 violated the Constitution and that the taxes imposed pursuant to it were void. It reversed the decree of the federal circuit court and remanded the case.Congress recognized the need for a constitutional provision permitting the levy of federal income tax without Apportionment among the several states. It took, however, eighteen more years before there was sufficient support for the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment.



This humerous image depicts the view that many people suffer to pay taxes at the beginning of every year. Many people wish there were no mandatory takes, however, I belive although the tax system may not be completely fair especially in property taxes, it does help our country in many areas.



This image depicts the view that Legislators do not have much common sense when they devise tax laws. In my opinion Legislators do not always think of the Country's overall benefit when proposing a tax law.




For more information visit:

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Pollock+v.+Farmers'+Loan+%26+Trust+Co.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/158/601