When and how was federal income tax introduced?

Taxes have been around for a long period of time. The first form of taxes came from Ancient Egypt as citizens had to pay with labor or with the crops they grew on their land. Traditionally, taxes were mostly conducted on items purchased and imported. In fact, the main motivation of the creation of the United States in the colonies was to break free of the intense grip of the British tax and tariff system they had placed on American colonists. After that, taxes still remained the same, only really being imposed on the purchase of goods and imports. It wasn't until 1913, when the U.S. Congress passed a bill that became the sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution, that Congress was allowed to impose a federal income tax on citizens. It was seen as an appropriate way to scale back the taxes on goods to promote more business, but also being able to collect taxes from individual people and businesses.

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