The federal income tax turned 100 years old this month, but there are mixed reviews of its progress from then to now.
On February 3, 1913 the sixteenth amendment to the United States Constitution was passed to allow lawful income taxation.
In the time between then and World War II rich citizens paid taxes and the total amount was not very much.
During the 1940s tax percentages increased heavily due to the war and have been decreasing since the 1960s.
Various revisions have been made to tax laws since its induction including exemptions, deductions and credits to provide some relief to tax paying citizens.
Also, now all citizens pay taxes as opposed to just the wealthiest individuals in the nation.
The tax code otherwise known as, Title 26, has also become more complex since 1913 where its length was 400 pages and in 2012 it was reported at 73,608 pages by the Commerce Clearing House.
Though the income tax brackets are the lowest they have been since 1913 and the tax rates are lower than ever before there will always be a debate on whether income taxes are beneficial.
“Any question of benefit is subjective and it gets difficult to perfectly measure. The question of fairness depends on whom you ask. From person to person will be different,” said College of Business associate professor William Vetter.
Many college students and their parents and entrepreneurs feel the tax code is not providing opportunity, but creating more of a problem.
“For some students loans accumulate and end up holding them back from being able to do the things they want to do when they graduate. I would like to see the government do something about this,” said Darius Robinson, a junior electrical engineering major.
During the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said, “We need to make our tax code more competitive by ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and rewarding companies that create jobs here at home. And because taxpayers cannot continue subsidizing the soaring cost of higher education, I have called on Congress to take affordability and value into account when determining which colleges receive federal aid.”
Although Obama gave the nation an appeal to current tax code regulations and policies, the effects of his proposed plan will not be felt immediately.
Alike to the years of income tax reform, as a nation, we are continuing to move forward to match income tax to current American need.