# WHy was the U.S. federal income tax never revoked? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360 "2003-07-14T12:58:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360/21 "2003-07-14T23:59:40Z")
The telephone excise tax that was introduced during the Spanish-America War was repealed after the war was over. The current telephone excise tax dates from the Korean War, I believe. Opponents of this tax like to refer to it incorrectly as the Spanish-American War tax to hold it up for ridicule. It’s like referring to our income tax as the Civil War tax because the first income tax was levied during the Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360/22 "2003-07-15T01:30:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by manhattan \* > \*\*And, of course, there’s [this guy](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_127.html), who’s rumored to know a thing or two. \*\* I assume that the Bernard Sussman to whom Cecil replied in the linked column is the same one who wrote the casebook that I linked to. I had never noticed the connection before **manhattan** ’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360/23 "2003-07-15T12:09:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Demigorgon \* > \*\* Since apparently it was established to pay for WWII, and thats been over for some 50 years now, what was their excuse for not getting rid of it? \*\* The income tax was actually passed because we needed a permanent replacement for the whiskey tax which was soon to disappear forever. Everyone knew prohibition on a national level was coming, so we needed a new way to finance the federal government on a continuing basis. However, when prohibition was repealed, they “forgot” to repleal the income tax (which wasnt needed anymore). Since very very few americans ever paid any income tax, very few americans one seemed to care that the income tax was not repealed. For the most part, only the rich paid income tax until the 1950’s, it just was not an issue with most voters. Kennedy’s tax cut of dropping the income tax rate from 90% only affected the wealthy(his friends). I really didnt know anybody personally who cared about it his tax cut. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360/24 "2003-07-15T12:44:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Susanann \* > **The income tax was actually passed because we needed a permanent replacement for the whiskey tax which was soon to disappear forever.** Not quite. From the U.S. Treasury’s [History of the U.S. Tax System](http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fact-sheets/taxes/ustax.html) > [@](#): > > [After the Supreme Court declared an income tax unconstitutional in 1895,] a number of events and policies kept the income tax issue alive as a means to control the economy. There were depressions in the 1870’s, 1880’s and 1890’s. There was a price system under which farmers sold their goods wholesale in a competitive world market but paid retail prices for industrial goods in a controlled economy. There was also a strong resistance to taxes on consumption. > > Proposals to reinstate the income tax were introduced by Congressmen from agricultural areas whose constituents feared a Federal tax on property, especially on land, as a replacement for the excises. > > Eventually, the income tax debate pitted southern and western Members of Congress representing more agricultural and rural areas against the industrial northeast. The debate resulted in an agreement calling for a tax, called an excise tax, to be imposed on business income, and a Constitutional amendment to allow the Federal government to impose tax on individuals’ lawful incomes without regard to the population of each State. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360/25 "2003-07-16T03:01:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brianmelendez \* > \*\*I assume that the Bernard Sussman to whom Cecil replied in the linked column is the same one who wrote the casebook that I linked to. I had never noticed the connection before **manhattan** ’s post. \*\* Yes, it’s the same guy. Bernard’s one of the experts in de-bunking these bizarre financial/tax theories that come up, as his collection of cases indicates. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360/26 "2003-07-16T03:29:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bricker \* > \*\*This is General Questions, in which factual answers are offered. > > Almost everything you’ve said above is a lie. > … > To the extent that someone may read your message as standing for the proposition that it is possible to employ these tactics to legally pay no income tax, it just isn’t the truth. > > - Rick \*\* I don’t think **hyjyljyj** ’s really interested in the truth, **Bricker** - the last time he posted the same nonsense half a year ago in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=2752087#post2752087), he showed no interest in replying to the detailed responses he got from [manhattan](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=2752189#post2752189), [Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=2753060#post2753060), or [me](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=2758921#post2758921). Guess he’s just a true believer and doesn’t want to be 😕 with facts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-u-s-federal-income-tax-never-revoked/188360.md?page=1)