American Treasure Tour Trivia Blog
Tax Trivia:
The first US income tax started during in the Civil War to help raise money back in 1862.
The 16th Amendment, ratified in 1913, established the first permanent US income tax.
There are over 7 million words in the tax law and regulations. That beats the Gettysburg address, the Declaration of Independence, and the Holy Bible all rolled into one (269+1,337+773k).
There were 402 tax forms in 1990, by 2002 that number had jumped to a staggering 526.
According to CCH, the number of pages in the tax code and regulations went from 26,300 in 1984 to an astonishing 54,846 in 2003.
By 1989 taxpayers in 36 states could file their taxes electronically ~ one year later, every state had those capabilities.
The U.S. Federal government collected 2.3 trillion in taxes last year. That is: $2,300,000,000,000.
In 1894 Congress passed the Wilson-Groman tariff which was an income
tax at the rate of 2% for income over $4,000 but it was overturned by the Supreme
Court in 1895.
Car accidents have jumped 6% on tax day over the past 30 years.
Tax Jokes:
"I'm not going to pay taxes. When they say I'm going to prison, I'll say no, prisons cost taxpayers a lot of money. You keep what it would have cost to incarcerate me, and we'll call it even." –Jimmy Kimmel
"The government is really asking a lot of us this month -- first we're supposed to count how many people live in our home -- then we're supposed to count how much money we owe them. I actually got confused and accidentally sent a check to the census and a member of my household to the IRS. Sorry grandma." -Jimmy Kimmel
Tax Quote:
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. ~Mark Twain
