At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. Less than 34 hours later, Union forces surrendered.
Thus, the Civil War began. So did the financial requirements to fund the Civil War. This prompted the first American income tax in 1861. At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax.
Congress repealed the income tax in 1872, but the concept did not disappear. 41 years later, so fools had a grand idea to enforce their will on others.