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Tax Day Facts

Tax Day Facts
Tax Day in the United States is the due date for filing personal income tax with the federal government each year. The Revenue Act of 1861 introduced federal income tax as a means to financially help the Civil War however it was held unconstitutional when challenged. In 1913 the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted and subsequently all incomes in the U.S. were legally taxable. The first tax filing deadline was March 1st, 1913. The date was changed in 1918 to March 15th, and then in 1955 it was changed to April 15th. Tax Day in the United States falls on April 15th each year unless the 15th is a weekend or holiday, which means Tax Day is then the next non-weekend or holiday date.
Interesting Tax Day Facts:
The Latin word for 'tax' is 'taxo'. It means 'I estimate'.
In some states Tax Day falls on Patriots' Day, which is a holiday in Maine and Massachusetts. Residents in these states are allowed an extension when Tax Day and Patriots' Day coincide.
In the United States a person who reports their employer for tax evasion is eligible to receive 30% of the taxes subsequently collected.
In 1913 the federal tax code was only 400 pages in length but by 2010 it was 70,000 pages long.
In 2007 it is estimated that 40% of households in the United States did not owe any federal income tax. Due to the economic downturn in subsequent years it is estimated that in 2012, 47% of American households did not owe any federal income taxes.
It is estimated that the average person works for the first 100+ days of the year to pay their income taxes. In 2014 it was estimated to be 111 days.
Federal income tax is not the only tax Americans have to pay. There are also social security tax, sales tax, property tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax, gambling tax, and excise tax.
Low and middle income earners pay less income tax than the wealthiest 1% of the population in the United States. The wealthiest 1% of the population in the United States pays 37% of the total income tax.
There are several states that do not charge a state tax on top of the federal income tax. These states include Wyoming, Washington, Texas, South Dakota, Nevada, Florida, and Alaska.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's government agency responsible for collecting income tax is the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). This agency is also responsible for enforcing tax laws.
By Tax Day in 2009 it is estimated that 131,543,000 individual U.S. income tax returns were filed.
It is estimated that more than 300,000 federal U.S. employees owe taxes totaling more than $3.5 billion.
In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. The next year Social Security numbers became available but these numbers were not required on tax forms until 1961.
Tax Day is not a celebrated holiday in the United States. It is a day that many people dread. Albert Einstein said, "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."


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