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[[Image:16th Amedment.jpg|thumb|300px|Ratification page for the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1913)]]

[[Image:16th Amendment.jpg|thumb|300px|Ratification page for the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1913)]]

Far-reaching in its social as well as its economic impact, the income tax amendment became part of the Constitution by a curious series of events culminating in a bit of political maneuvering that went awry.  

Far-reaching in its social as well as its economic impact, the income tax amendment became part of the Constitution by a curious series of events culminating in a bit of political maneuvering that went awry.  

Although radicals denounced the Court’s decision as a prime example of the alliance of government and business against the farmer, a general return of prosperity around the turn of the century softened the demand for reform. Democratic Party Platforms under the leadership of three-time Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, however, consistently included an income tax plank, and the progressive wing of the Republican Party also espoused the concept.

Although radicals denounced the Court’s decision as a prime example of the alliance of government and business against the farmer, a general return of prosperity around the turn of the century softened the demand for reform. Democratic Party Platforms under the leadership of three-time Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, however, consistently included an income tax plank, and the progressive wing of the Republican Party also espoused the concept.

In 1909 progressives in Congress again attached a provision for an income tax to a tariff bill. Conservatives, hoping to kill the idea for good, proposed a constitutional amendment enacting such a tax; they believed an amendment would never received ratification by three-fourths of the states. Much to their surprise, the amendment was ratified by one state legislature after another, and on February 25, 1913, with the certification by Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, the 16th amendment took effect. Yet in 1913, due to generous exemptions and deductions, less than 1 percent of the population paid income taxes at the rate of only 1 percent of net income.  

After ''Pollock'' the Court did uphold creative taxation by Congress based on a theory that they were levied on mere "incidents of ownership" and thus were constitutional excise taxes:  (1) an inheritance tax, (2) a tax affixing revenue stamps to memoranda for the sale of merchandise on commodity exchanges, (3) a war revenue tax upon tobacco being resold, and (4) a corporate income tax as an excise "measured by income" justified by the privilege of doing business in corporate form.  

The Sixteenth Amendment settled the constitutional question of permission to tax income and, by so doing, effected dramatic changes in the American way of life.  

 

This document settled the constitutional question of how to tax income and, by so doing, effected dramatic changes in the American way of life.  

On April 13, 2000, an organization called We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education, Inc. sent delegates to Washington D.C. to argue that the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified. There are a number of questionable circumstances surrounding the ratification, including evidence that states which were claimed to have ratified it actually rejected it.

On April 13, 2000, an organization called We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education, Inc. sent delegates to Washington D.C. to argue that the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified. There are a number of questionable circumstances surrounding the ratification, including evidence that states which were claimed to have ratified it actually rejected it.