[48222] in Cypherpunks
Re: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Horowitz)
Fri Jan 26 21:19:45 1996
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 21:15:52 -0500 (EST)
From: Alan Horowitz <alanh@infi.net>
To: Jon Lasser <jlasser@rwd.goucher.edu>
Cc: Jay Holovacs <holovacs@styx.ios.com>, hallam@w3.org, cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960126103914.25000B-100000@rwd.goucher.edu>
> In fact, before FDR, wage income was taxed; however, it was one large
> check at the end of the yeraar (or the beginning of the next, really).
I think this wrong. Read the definition of "income" before the WWII.
Wages were considered to be an equal exchange for labor services
rendered, not a "gain" (income).
> The high cost of WW II made it a necessity for the gvm't to have more
> money at a particular moment, and not wait for year-end.
Not so. Govt has been able to print fiat money at will since the Fed
Reserve was founded in 1913.
> the income tax was passed; however, the income tax (and wage income was
> most certainly taxed) was AFAIK implemented by the end of the 19th century.
That income tax was overthrown by the Supreme Court as not being
apportioned amongst the states, as required by the Constitution.
Technically, the income tax is an excise, not a tax. They aren't the
same.
