"The only things certain are death and taxes" - Benjamin Franklin. Yet few know America's interesting history of Income Tax, such as: 1787 - U.S. Constitution prohibited a "direct" Federal tax 1862 - "Revenue Tax" on incomes went into effect as an emergency to finance the Union during the Civil War 1873 - Civil War ended, emergency over, Income Tax Repealed 1895 - Supreme Court made Income Tax unconstitutional 1913 - Woodrow Wilson thought tariffs on imports caused wars, so he worked to replace them with an Income Tax. Income Tax was originally only a 1% tax on the top 1% richest people in America. 1943 - Paycheck Withholding began as an emergency effort to get funds to finance WWII. John F. Kennedy - "Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased flow of revenues to the Federal Government." (Annual Budget Message, Jan. 17, 1963) Thomas Jefferson - "It is an encouragement to proceed as we have begun in substituting economy for taxation" (2nd Annual Message, 1802)