History of the U.S. Income Tax Essay Example for Free

History of the U.S. Income Tax Essay The income tax of the United States of America, be it federal, state and local, has changed over time. Different circumstances pushed the government to create taxation and to amend the existing taxation laws. During the pre-Revolutionary War era in the 1700s, taxes were not imposed by the colonial government as their need for tax revenue did not exist. The colonies, on the other hand, had greater responsibilities therefore, had greater need for tax revenue. Because of this, different types of taxes were imposed by the colonies. The southern colonies imposed taxes on imports and exports while the middle colonies imposed taxes on property and a poll tax on each adult male. The New England colonies, on the other hand, collected taxes through property taxes, income taxes and excise taxes. When the English Parliament realized the need for money to pay for the French war, it imposed different taxes to the American colonies through the Stamp Act which was enacted in 1765. Later on, this Stamp Act was revised to include taxes for permits, newspapers, legal documents and playing cards. The Townsend Act was later on enacted by the Parliament to include taxes for paint, tea and paper . After a decade of paying taxes, there was much resistance to the tax imposed by the Parliament. During the Boston Tea Party in 1773, colonists, dressed as Native Americans, threw 342 chests of tea from a ship of the British East India Company to the Boston Harbor. In 1775, Isaac Backus during the Massachusetts Assembly said that â€Å"It’s not all America now appealing to Heaven against injustice of being taxed†¦We are persuaded that an entire freedom from being taxed by civil rulers†¦is not mere favor from any men in the world but a right and property granted us by God, who commands us to stand fast in it† . Taxation is considered as one of the factors that led to American War for Independence hence, when America gained its Independence, Article 1, Section 9, Article 4 of the U. S. Constitution in 1787 declared that there be no capitation or any direct taxes imposed on the citizens. The national government had very little responsibilities during these times and relied only on donations given by the States for its revenue. However, in 1789, the Founding Fathers realized that it could not function at its efficiency if it relied only on other governments’ donations hence the Federal Government was granted the authority to impose taxes. The sensitivity to taxation was still existing at this point in time hence the government has to be careful on how it impose taxes so as to minimize resistance from its people. Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury in the 1790s, decided that a â€Å"sin tax† was imposed . Through the â€Å"sin tax†, only items which society thinks is deviant or vice were taxed such as distilled spirits, alcohol and whiskey. However, this still led to the armed revolt called Whisky Rebellion by a group of South Pennsylvania farmers. Still during the 1790s, the Federal Government imposed direct taxes to owners of houses, slaves and land. However, when Thomas Jefferson was elected to office in 1802, these direct taxes were removed and for the succeeding 10 years, only excise taxes were imposed. The reason for this was because he realized the inverse relationship of tax rates and tax revenue wherein the higher the taxes imposed on the citizens, the slower the economy grows hence the tax revenue declines. A cut in the rate of tax means that income for the family will become higher, expenditures become higher and hence, the economy experiences growth. During the 1812 War, the need for tax revenue resurfaced again hence taxes on the sales of gold, jewelry, watches and silver were imposed. Treasury notes were also issued to raise money. However, in 1817, the Congress revoked these taxes and for the next 40 years, government revenue was based on high customs duties and sale of government or public land . In 1861, when the Civil War erupted, the Revenue Act of 1861 was enacted. This Act restored the previous taxes on personal income. This tax was similar to the modern income tax because it was based on a gradual taxation of withholding tax from its source. A person earning $600 to $10,000 a year paid 3% tax. Persons with income higher than $10,000 paid a higher rate of tax. In 1862, the debt created by the war was rising at a rate of $2 million per day hence there was another need for the government to increase its revenue. Because of this, the Congress passed another tax imposition on items such gunpowder, playing cards, telegrams, iron, pianos, yatchs, drugs, among others. After the Civil War, the need for revenue declined and hence the income tax was abolished and only the excise taxes remained from 1868 to 1913. The War Revenue Act in 1899 was enacted to raise funds for the Spanish-American War. Government revenues, thru this Act, was raised through sales of bonds, tax imposition on recreational facilities, beer and tobacco. However, the Supreme Court realized that the people of America were becoming aware that the high tarrifs and excise taxes were not good to the economic welfare of the nation and that these taxes were usually paid by the less affluent citizens. Hence, there was an agreement that business income instead was imposed tax. By 1913, Congress enacted a new income tax law which imposes 1% to 7% for persons with income above $500,000. These people earning above $500,000 was only 1% of the total United States population . During World War I, the United States needed to increase its revenue again to fund the war. The 1916 Act raised the tax imposition from 1% to 2% and could go as high as 15% for those with income of more than $1. 5 million. By 1917, the government still needs further government revenue to pay for the war, hence the War Revenue Act of 1917 was enacted. Through this Act, exemptions were lowered and tax rates increased that those who earn $40,000 needs to pay 16% tax rate. In 1918, the tax rates were further increased. Those citizens paying 1% had to pay 6%. The highest rate in 1917 was 15% but during 1918, this was increased to 77%. Due to this increase in tax rates, government revenue increased from $761 million during 1916 to $3. 6 billion in 1918. After the war, the government revenue rose and the government decided to cut taxes to 1% bottom rate and 25% top rate . The Great Depression during the late 1920s and early 1930s pushed the government to once again increase the tax rates. The Tax Act of 1932 was enacted and by 1936, the bottom tax rate was at 4% and the top tax rate reached 79%. When the World War II came, another price hike came into place which altered the tax rates. Those with taxable income of less than $500 paid a bottom rate of 23% taxes while those earning taxable income of over a million dollars paid about 94% of taxes . The tax structure in the United States was also heavily altered in that the number of taxpayers increased from 4 million during 1939 to roughly 43 million during the World War II. Throughout all these years of implementing taxation, the government learned a very important lesson which until now is being valued by government officials and economists and has affected the tax laws enacted in the country – the marginal dollar is far more important to the economy compared to the tax rate being used. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was implemented with this important lesson in mind. Unlike the previous taxation laws, this Act was intended to focus on marginal tax rates and it also included consumption taxes. However, due to the deep recession experienced by the country in 1982, the government was once again faced with the need to increase tax rates to overcome budget deficits. Following the 1982 recession was an economic boom which lead the country to believe that marginal tax rates are very important for a strong economy. During the Reagan administration, tax rates were further reduced and had a broader base through the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This reduced tax rate from 50% to 28% while business taxes were reduced from 50% to 35% . In 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Actof 1997 was enacted. The significant party of this Act was the Per Child Tax credit which benefited the lower-income families. During the Bush administration in 2001, the government experienced a budget surplus of about $281 billion hence a tax cut was once again conducted . This tax cut included raising the Per Child Tax Credit from $500 to $1,000 per child, as well as increased the Dependent Child Tax Credit. Until now, this tax law is being implemented and is expected to boost economic growth for the country.

The Cruel Joke of Life Exposed in Vonneguts Cats Cradle :: Vonnegut Cats Cradle Essays

The Cruel "joke" of Life Exposed in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle Cat's Cradle is set up like a series of comic strips, with satirical commentary found in the last "panel". What, then, could we conclude is the accumulative punchline for the entire novel? What does Vonnegut give us for his "last laugh"? If we attempt to answer this question, we must first try solving the answers to "what is the joke?" and "who is the joker?" It seems Vonnegut's characters are the victims to the cruel "joke" of life. In Cat's Cradle he suggests that God is the joker. Like any good comedian, he must consider his timing and his audience. By using human beings that are always trying to understand it all in a scientific age, it becomes the perfect "set-up". His method of delivering the joke seems to be either through Religion or Science. In the novel, the more the characters try to find the meaning of life, the funnier and more absurd the joke becomes. And no one is laughing harder than Bokonon. Julian Castle quotes this poem from The Books of Bokonon after Jonah shrieks, "My God-life! Who can understand even one minute of it?" Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand (150). Bokononism is a witty, satirical retort to the methods that God uses to play his joke. Bokonon and his followers understand the joke and even play along. When the final "punchline" is about to be delivered (when the ice nine is released), the Bokononists, who seem to have always anticipated an end to this prank called life, willingly eat the ice nine and kill themselves.

Learning by Degrees Essay

I don’t recommend the article â€Å"Learning by Degrees† by Rebecca Mead, which questions the belief that goes against attending college to be successful in the modern society, should be published in the next upcoming issue of The Shorthorn. The article was written for an entirely different audience than The Shorthorn’s daily regular readers. Even though the article has powerful logos and ethos appeals, I would think readers from the Shorthorn wouldn’t find the topic of the article fascinating at all and wouldn’t even put up with reading the article in the first place. Also, another factor that fails to be an article that the Shorthorn’s readers would find interesting is that it lacks a claim that fails to make a case for going towards a career path immediately or obtaining a college degree first. Through my analysis on this article, I’ve provided several reasons and evidence why I don’t find this article should be published since she is trying to convince a hostile audience in this essay, gives a weak claim, and has credibility for a separate view that she is discussing about. The main audience the article â€Å"Learning by Degrees† is trying to convince is average working parents with kids that are about to graduate from high school and preparing them for a higher education or a career that’ll be successful. This article is trying to convince a hostile and resistant audience instead of a friendlier audience. We must remember that the Shorthorn is mainly written and read by college students that are studying for a degree and involve college professors that have already received their degrees. â€Å"Learning By Degrees† gives a pathos appeal to the question of whether going to college to readers who’ve already made a decision on this topic, making it harder for someone to recommend this article to the Shorthorn. If Mead was trying to publish this article for the Shorthorn, she should have considered that the audience doesn’t fit what it’s addressing to which are parents instead of students. Mead’s claim that is shown in â€Å"Learning by Degrees† is easily found throughout the entire article, yet it’s a very weak claim to provide to both convince and especially understand to a hostile and resistant audience that the reader of the Shorthorn are. The claim in the article fails to pick a side in the debate of whether college really is worth the financial debt and yet instead falls in between them. The opinions of this current argument would be if college is necessary to acquire a successful career or if college isn’t needed to obtain one. Mead believes that an individual not wanting to earn and spend thousands of dollars on a college degree has the ability to become successful through several others routes instead of a college degree. She provides evidence of this through giving examples of successful billionaires, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. One of these examples are found when Mead says â€Å"Within the sphere of business, a certain romance attaches to the figure of the successful college dropout, like Steve Jobs, who was enrolled at Reed for only a semester, or Bill Gates, who started at Harvard in 1973 but didn’t get his degree until it was granted, honorarily, thirty-four years later†(5). However, she contradicts her claim by providing evidence of people with degrees earning higher yearly salaries than those who haven’t earned their college degrees. When Mead says â€Å"Engineers of all stripes have also fared relatively well since the onset of the recession: they dominate a ranking, issued by Payscale.com, of the disciplines that produce the best-earning graduates. Particular congratulations are due to aerospace engineers, who top the list, with a starting salary of just under sixty thousand dollars†(2). She leaves the audience a claim that floats between the two views of whether someone should obtain a college degree. Rebecca Mead joined the New Yorker in 1997 as a staff writer and she attended Oxford and New York University, which gives her creditability of being a respected writer and a well-educated individual (The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/rebecca_mead/search?contributorName=rebecca%20mead). However, shouldn’t that mean Mead should be recommending college and frown on any lower level of education? This sheds light on whether Mead is a credible writer, well educated, and yet argues against higher education; this is a hypocritical view from a college-educated author. Mead might have only written articles for profitable causes instead of having a true belief of going against college to be successful; There might be a chance that Mead regrets her previous decision on choosing college instead of a different route and wants to give advice to newly coming college students, which might be an unlikely case. Through the analysis I gave, â€Å"Learning by Degrees† by Rebecca Mead is an article I wouldn’t recommend to publish in the upcoming issue of the Shorthorn. Its main audience doesn’t have the same characteristics as the readers of The Shorthorn, the central claim doesn’t have a stable and sturdy base since it lacks whether college is necessary or not, and the writer’s creditability doesn’t fit the side of the argument she is defending. Due to these factors, Shorthorn readers will find this a weak and insubstantial argument that will bore them and find this article a waste of time. If Mead chooses towards favoring the belief of obtaining a college degree, made the main audience similar to the readers of the Shorthorn, and used her credibility towards agreeing with college, â€Å"Learning by Degrees† would be a great article to publish in the next upcoming issue of the Shorthorn.

Personal Experience An Application for a Nursing Scholarship

A dream is a goal in life and with that dream it can become a personal accomplishment. As a student at Miami Dade College ,I feel I am deserving of a scholarship because I want to be able to continue my pursuit of a college education in which it will assist me to obtain my nursing degree. My main focus is to never give up because one day it will allow me to gain success and broaden my horizons. I take full responsibility when it comes to school considering that my hard work and passion will soon pay off. I am deserving of a scholarship because I am very persistent and I am capable of fighting for what I want. Throughout the years, I have taken many losses whether it may be from losing a close friend, distancing myself from a family member or being rejected because my vision was not seen or heard. But that made me a better person reason being, I was able to wipe my tears and learned to bounce back by not allowing situations to bring me down or ruin my character. Entering this schola rship, will aid me in finding a way to highlight the special qualities that I possess,so others can see them too. For example, everyday is a new challenge that I face.I am slowly learning myself and becoming that bright young and mature lady that I was raised to be. I have the ability to follow through hard work in which it will take me to achieve my dreams and goals. I learn how to ignore negativity. I am motivated because I accept the difficult aspects with a positive attitude. Knowing that IShow MoreRelatedSchool Profile : The University Of Tennessee1053 Words   |  5 Pagesagriculture. Students are limited to seventeen undergraduate degrees, but there are over 100 concentrations available. However, the schools of nursing and business are becoming quite popular. The University of Tennessee at Martin is one of the top candidate providers for the University of Tennessee’s Health Science Center in Memphis. 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