February 3, 1913: The 16th Amendment Is Ratified

February 3, 1913: The 16th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is ratified, permitting Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the various States or basing it on the U.S. Census.

On April 8, 1895, in the case of Charles Pollock v. Farmers Loan & Trust Company, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an income tax was unconstitutional. Therefore, an Amendment to the Constitution was necessary to produce an income tax in America.

As required, it was ratified by three-quarters of the States then in the Union. As New Mexico had become the 47th State, and Arizona the 48th State, in 1912, this was the first Amendment ratified with at least that many States: 36 out of 48.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue was set up by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, to collect taxes. In 1953, its name was changed to the Internal Revenue Service, taking up the name of the agency that was set up to college the nation's first income tax, during the American Civil War. Usually, it's shortened to its initials: IRS. Some people call it the Infernal Revenue Service.

There are people who say, "Taxation is theft." But Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., then a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a Republican, wrote, "Taxes are the price we pay for civilized society."

In 1961, the black comedian Dick Gregory was filmed doing his act, saying, "At the rate my people are going, one day, we might have a black President. So laugh at my jokes, or I'll raise your taxes!" The audience laughed, having no idea that this was the year that Barack Obama, who became the 1st black President, was born. The audience laughed a bit more gingerly at Gregory's next line: "I wouldn't mind paying taxes, if I thought they were going to a friendly country!"

During the Vietnam War, some people refused to pay taxes to support it, and got in trouble for it, including folksinger Joan Baez. On March 2, 1970, with the war still having no end in sight, comedian Danny Kaye was a guest on the TV variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. He used the IRS' old name, and (despite being from Brooklyn) a Southern accent, and said, "According to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, we can deduct $600 for everybody we support. Well, this year, I'm claiming the government of South Vietnam!"

There are people who point out that the American Revolution was fought over taxation. This is far from the full story. The slogan was, "Taxation without representation is tyranny," and that was hardly the only reason the Revolution was fought. The 16th Amendment provided for taxation with representation. That's often no prize, either, but at least we have a say in it, unlike people living in America in 1776.

One more note: With an income tax established, the federal government no longer needed to collect so much tax on alcohol. This freed up many members of Congress to vote in favor of Prohibition, which became the 18th Amendment.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is headquartered at the Treasury Building, at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, to the east of the White House. Built in 1842, it is shown on the back of the U.S. $10 bill. A separate headquarters building for the IRS is a few blocks away, at 1111 Constitution Avenue NW. It opened in 1936, and Holmes' quote is engraved on its facade.

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February 3, 1913 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. Professional hockey had the National Hockey Association in Eastern Canada, and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in Western Canada, but neither league played any games on this day. Therefore, there were no games on this historic day.