When did the U.S. start a federal income tax
Executive summary
The first federal income tax in the United States was enacted to finance the Civil War in 1861–1862, but that tax was temporary and later repealed [1] [2]. The modern, permanent federal income tax system dates to the ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913 and the Revenue Act that followed, which constitutionally authorized Congress to tax incomes without apportionment among the states [3] [4].
1. The Civil War origin: the nation’s first experiment with income tax
Facing enormous Civil War expenses, Congress and President Lincoln approved revenue measures that included the nation’s first federal income tax in 1861–1862, creating an Office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue and levying an income tax as a wartime financing tool [1] [2]. That early tax introduced progressive rates and institutional machinery that would later evolve into the Internal Revenue Service, but political opposition and peacetime budget choices led Congress to scale back and ultimately repeal much of the wartime income tax in the years after the war [1].
2. The late‑19th century trial and the Supreme Court roadblock
A renewed federal income tax effort in the 1890s culminated in the Wilson–Gorman attempts and a flat tax enacted by Congress in 1894, but the Supreme Court’s 1895 Pollock decision limited Congress’s ability to tax certain types of income by treating some levies as direct taxes that had to be apportioned by state population, effectively undercutting a practical federal income tax [2] [5]. The Pollock-era legal doctrine made an unapportioned federal income tax impractical and stalled national income taxation until a constitutional fix was pursued [5].
3. Constitutional solution: the 16th Amendment and the 1913 Revenue Act
Congress proposed and the states ratified the 16th Amendment between 1909 and February 3, 1913, explicitly allowing Congress to tax incomes “from whatever source derived” without apportionment, and that ratification cleared the constitutional obstacle identified in Pollock [3] [6]. Almost immediately after ratification, Congress enacted the Revenue Act of 1913, which imposed a federal income tax (initially a 3% tax on incomes over $800 with later graduated changes) and established the legal and institutional basis for the modern federal income tax system embodied today in Title 26 of the U.S. Code [3] [4].
4. Answering “when did the U.S. start a federal income tax?” — a careful distinction
If the question seeks the very first use of a federal income tax, the answer is the Civil War law of 1861–1862; if it asks when the continuous, constitutionally secure federal income tax began in the form citizens recognize today, the decisive date is 1913 after the 16th Amendment and the Revenue Act [1] [3] [4]. Historical narratives often compress these moments into “1913” because Pollock’s 1895 ruling had made earlier attempts legally fragile and short-lived, and 1913 marks the institutional and constitutional birth of the modern income tax regime [5] [7].
5. Why the distinction matters and what to read next
The practical implications are that revenue‑raising by federal income taxation was tested in the 1860s and again in the 1890s, but those efforts did not produce the enduring system that finances the modern federal government until the 16th Amendment and the 1913 statute removed constitutional barriers and created a durable framework [1] [3] [4]. Sources consulted include the Internal Revenue Service historical highlights (for the Civil War origin and institutional lineage), the National Archives (for the 16th Amendment ratification record), and legal and secondary summaries that explain Pollock and the transition to 1913 [1] [3] [5].