Amendment XVI
Ratified February 3, 1913
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
This amendment was important because it allowed Congress to impose an income tax without distributing it proportionally among the states. This amendment also exempted income taxes from the constitutional requirements regarding direct taxes. One important case to this amendment is Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. in 1895. This was a landmark case that had a ruling of 5 to 4 written by Chief Justice Melville Fuller. The court ruled that the unapportioned income taxes on interest, dividends and rents imposed by the Income Tax Act of 1894 were direct taxes and were unconstitutional because they violated the rule that direct taxes be apportioned. Interest income on certain bonds were later overruled in 1988 by the Supreme Court in the case of South v. Baker.
This picture depicts a worker that works at some sort of tax firm gathering all the taxes that has been imposed on this person by shaking him abruptly upside down. This picture is able to give the general idea of what the sixteenth amendment is about: taxes.
This link guides you to a video clip of congressmen Ron Paul and his debate on taxes. He thinks that the sixteenth amendment should be forgotten and taken away. He thinks that it is unfair and that the solution isn't to put more takes on the rich. His solution is to get rid of the welfare system and warfare system. He also talks about the 99 to 1 idea.
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