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The very first personal income tax in the United States of America was imposed by the government of the time to finance their war efforts during the Civil War. The tax formed part of the Revenue Act of 1861 and was instituted on August 5, 1861. The Act stated that a 3 percent personal tax be imposed on all income revenues over $800. This tax was repealed in the following year and replaced by another income tax that was implemented in 1862.

More than 30 years later, in 1894, the Democrat Congress passed the first peace time income tax. The tax was implemented to recover revenues that were to be lost due to tariff reductions and was known as the Wilson-Gorman Tariff. This tax law affected less than 10 percent of the population at the time as it only taxed persons with an income of more than $4,000. The tax rate was 2 percent.

Tax Law has Never Been Simple In 1895, a Supreme Court case made a ruling that was to cause confusion in the tax laws for many years to come. In the case of Pollock versus Farmers Loan and Trust Co., the court ruled that tax levied on receipts from the use of property was unconstitutional. In other words, rental income from property, interest and dividend income from personal property were considered direct taxes and therefore had to be apportioned among the States. However, as apportionment was largely impractical, this court ruling effectively prohibited tax on any income received from property investments. This caused complications in the federal tax system for years and the government lost out on substantial revenues.

Realizing the effect of the ruling, Congress responded by proposing the Sixteenth Amendment in 1909 which was eventually ratified by the required number of States in 1913. In simple terms, the amendment stated that Congress could impose taxes regardless of the source of income. In addition, it did not have to be apportioned to the various States and was not affected by enumeration or census. The Supreme Court case of Brushaber versus Union Pacific Railroad, three years later, reaffirmed that the Sixteenth Amendment did not expand Congress's power to impose taxes. Rather, it simply removed the possibility of income tax being classified as a direct tax on the basis of the source of income.

There are literally hundreds of tax statutes that have been passed on the basis of the 1913 Sixteenth Amendment and theses are commonly known as “modern” tax statutes. Various court rulings have further defined tax laws and a large portion of these have revolved around the definition of gross income or personal income.

How Income Tax Historically Contributes to Government Revenues Even though income taxes were implemented from 1861 in the U.S., they never made up any significant portion of the tax revenues. Instead, these were largely generated from a variety of tariffs. With the onset of World War I, this changed when income tax was used as a source to fund the war efforts. Today, a large portion of government revenues is generated from income tax, although many people advocate that taxes should be generated from alternate revenue streams. There is an ongoing debate regarding types, levels and implementation of taxes and accountants are still forever trying to find ways of reducing the amount of individual tax paid. The Rise and Fall of the Top Marginal Tax Rate in the United States Initially following the implementation of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913, tax levels were still relatively low. There was a 1 percent tax on net personal incomes and surcharge of and additional 6 percent tax on any personal incomes over $500,000. By 1918, due to the First World War, the top rate for income tax had risen to 77 percent for incomes over $1,000,000. The rate then dropped progressively in the 1920s to a more reasonable 24 percent in 1929. However, this level was short-lived. With the advent of the great depression, the rate shot up to 63 percent in 1932 and by the end of World War II the top tax rate was 94 percent on all income over $200,000. Even though the war was long gone the rate remained above 90 percent until 1964 when it was lowered to 70 percent. During the 1980s, it dropped to a low of just 28 percent. In the last few decades, the top marginal tax rate has remained within a range of 12 percent. Currently, it is around 35 percent but it is expected to rise to around 40 percent in the coming years. Interestingly enough, even though the top marginal rate has fluctuated significantly over the years, the actual tax revenue generated from income has remained fairly constant at around 19.5 percent over time.1040-Tax Extension Wizard will file your online tax extension with the IRS and guarantee that the IRS will accept your application. Visit online for automatic extension on your individual tax return.

There are some realistic and practical business financing solutions available to small business owners in spite of the questionable commercial banking practices illustrated below. Because of one lingering viewpoint that any significant commercial lending problems have been eliminated, the emphasis here is not on solutions but rather on the underlying problems. Objective observers (which probably do not include most politicians and lenders) are almost unanimous that the series of errors made by business lenders are likely to be long-lasting for business borrowers in their ongoing efforts to obtain small business financing.

By exploring what went wrong with commercial lenders and small business financing, business owners will be better prepared to avoid serious future problems with their working capital financing and commercial real estate financing. This is not an academic exercise or a waste of time for most commercial borrowers, particularly if they need help with determining practical small business finance choices that are available to them.

Inaccurate and misleading statements by commercial lenders about their lending activities for business finance programs to small business owners are a growing problem. Although banks have typically been reporting that they are lending normally with their small business financing, the actual results indicate something very different by any objective standard. From a public relations viewpoint, it is clear that banks would rather not admit publicly that they are not lending normally. As a result of this particular issue alone, small business owners will need to be cautious and skeptical in their attempts to secure business financing.

Bankers obsessed with generating quick profits frequently lost sight of a basic investment principle that asset valuations can decrease quickly and do not always increase. Many business loans were finalized in which the commercial borrower had little or no equity at risk. Banks invested almost nothing in cash (as little as three cents on the dollar) when buying future toxic assets. The apparent assumption was that if any downward fluctuation in value occurred, it would be a token three to five percent. To demonstrate how wrong the bankers were, commercial real estate values in many areas have already decreased during the past two years by up to 50 percent. Commercial real estate is proving to be the next toxic asset on their balance sheets for the many banks which made the original commercial mortgages on such business properties. While there were huge government bailouts to banks which have toxic assets based on residential mortgages, it is not likely that banks will receive financial assistance to cover commercial real estate loan losses. Such commercial real estate financing losses could produce serious problems for banks and other lenders over the next three years. Despite ongoing concern and criticism about current reduced business lending activity, many commercial lenders have effectively stopped any meaningful small business financing.

There were many instances in which banks failed to look at cash flow when making loans or buying securities such as those now referred to as toxic assets. An underwriting process known as stated income in which commercial borrower tax returns were not required was used for some small business finance programs. Lehman Brothers was one of the most aggressive commercial lenders using this approach, and they filed for bankruptcy due to this as well as other questionable financial practices.

Greed seems to be a common theme for several of the most serious business finance mistakes made by many lending institutions. Negative results were unsurprisingly generated by an attempt to produce higher-than-normal returns and quick profits. The bankers themselves seem to be the only ones surprised by the devastating losses that they produced. The largest small business lender in the United States (CIT Group) declared bankruptcy after two years of attempting to get someone else to pay for their mistakes. We are already seeing a record level of bank failures, and by most accounts many of the largest banks should have been allowed to fail but were instead supported by artificial government funding. Commercial lenders made serious mistakes by almost any standard used to evaluate them, and according to a popular phrase, if business lenders and business owners forget these mistakes, they are doomed to repeat them in the future.Steve Bush has provided practical advice to business owners for 30 years. He delivers business financing help and working capital management throughout the United States. Stephen is a dependable source of working capital loans and is CEO of AEX Commercial Financing Group ( http://www.working-capital-journal.com )

To assist in your business plan preparation, avoid these three mistakes commonly made by entrepreneurs.

Looking Only at Competitor Weaknesses

Readers can see if you are doing this in a second. For example, if you mention a competitor business who has been in business for twenty years and is the top seller in the market, it is not believable to cite only its problems. Clearly, it at least has a brand advantage and familiarity with customers which will be tough to overcome. This business in question obviously has something more going for it than its longevity. Businesses dont stay around that long without having strengths of their own.

Because of the Internet, many small business owners now have the opportunity to expand their businesses into the international trade market. The days of having to be some huge corporate machine with bottomless pockets to be involved in the international trade market are finally over. With a little guidance, any website owner can now jump into a very pig pool and expand their business.

The government is promoting small business as a way to fight back against this horrible economy. Because their best desires are to have small businesses grow and start to provide jobs, they have set up many programs that are available to help small businesses grow into this market. Business owners are able to get information via the agency websites or to contact them directly.

If you are in the market for a new home, or perhaps looking to refinance, you will need to know a thing or two about what to look for in a mortgage. You have a lot of options when you select a mortgage, and there are many mortgage lenders to choose from.

Deciding what type of loan you would like is the first step for you. There are many types of loans to choose from, and it is a critical step. Selecting the wrong mortgage might put you in an awkward financial situation down the road, so it is best to find out what you need from the beginning.

The great financial rewards that can be had simply from investing in the right stocks are quite well known. However, many people are reluctant to start playing, simply because they are intimidated by the seemingly byzantine complexity of the markets. However, if one goes to reasonable lengths to become educated about the basics of stock market trading, one's risks become greatly reduced.

When you purchase stock, you are buying a piece of ownership and stake in the company, one which grows proportionately with the amount of stock you hold. You can profit when you sell the stock after it grows in value above the price you paid for it, or take a loss when it begins to shrink below that price. Stock market trading experts distribute their investment so that profits greatly eclipse any losses.

Any reluctance you may have towards stock market trading is perfectly understandable. Many people are easily intimidated by the kind of elaborate financial slang that is thrown around by veteran traders. However, if you are easily sustained by curiosity and interest, then you can overcome this hurdle when you devote enough time and effort towards independent study and the development of your stock market education. After which, such trading jargon will cease to be a barrier to you.

It is quite plain to see that stock market trading is really very simple: an elementary exercise but with great tactical nuance and rewards. However, those who seek even greater nuance and rewards in investment are likely to turn to stock options trading, which has a potential for profit that exceeds that of regular stock. Thus, you can see that stock market trading is a simple affair. It is such that many traders have felt the need to pursue other investment mechanisms, driven perhaps by a desire for something more stimulating, or wanting for larger profits. As such, many of them turn to stock options trading, whose potential for profit is independent of the direction which markets are headed.

However, intelligence and foresight is necessary for truly effective stock options trading in order to realize maximum profit. That means a trader must be capable of developing a cunning option strategy, planning ahead for possible changes to the market and remaining vigilant for any signs of such changes. In the case of the former, a trader needs a well developed stock option education while in the case of the latter, the trader will need to make use of various market indicators and instruments.

To see the most reward out of their trading strategy, it is important that one is monitoring the market with reasonable vigilance. Because the market is in a constantly changing state, there are some periods in which certain strategies are better deployed than others. To that end, mindful traders make use of various market instruments such as the MACD indicator in order to identify emerging trends and determine when it is best to deploy a particular trading strategy or not.

This article introduces financial newbies to the rewarding opportunities of stock market trading. However, the article takes note of the extent to which stock options trading has enabled veteran traders to realize maximum profits, particular when one makes use of market assessment tools and technical instruments such as the MACD indicator in order to maintain vigilant watch over the state of the market.

This article is just for you if you are searching for affordable dental health insurance. Here are some tips which may help you how to select an affordable health insurance for you and your family. Most of the companies offer you a dental insurance but it may not be able for small scale businesses as they may not be able to afford it. It may cost you a lot as if you don't have any basic knowledge about it.

You just need to decide which insurance plan is affordable for you. There is some discount dental insurance available which most of the people choose for. In this you get rebates at the dentist and you need not pay premium every month to the insurance company.

If you are doing online shopping for dental health insurance then you need to have the basic knowledge about it. Firstly you need to know that there is something called “LETA” which means least expensive treatment alternative. It basically means that in a condition where the dentist needs to fix your teeth then he will use the least cost technique. My advice would be that you should choose a dental health insurance plan which helps you to decide a treatment yourself.

The second thing which you need to keep in your mind is that are you permitted to go to the dentist which you choose or you have to visit a dentist which the company chooses. These are questions of faith, but try and choose a plan where you can visit a dentist which you choose. An affordable dental insurance plan helps one to choose the treatment as well as the dentist. Lastly, make sure what your maximum limit of compensation per year is. This question is very important as if you cross the limit then you need to pay everything yourself. Also enquire about the costs of various treatments which are offered to you by the dentists. Then you can compare the different plans accordingly and choose amongst them.

Comprehensive coverage plan could also be preferred if you need dental surgery or oral implants. You can also go for basic dental health insurance plan if your financial limit does not permit you for much coverage, it will provide you with clean and healthy teeth at once. Take out a plenty of quotes and measure and select amongst them. Get instant insurance rates from multiple carriers online. Free comparison for cheap auto, low cost health insurance, affordable home insurance quotes. We are dedicated to helping consumers find the most affordable and competitive home insurance on the web.

If you want to buy a house and you find that you are living in Canada then you have to consider the possibility of getting a Canadian mortgage. While it is something that you might not want, this is perhaps the only option that you are going to have.

Mortgages are given on behalf of people by a bank when they want to buy a house. It is usually as a result of the fact that they do not have the ability to pay for the house themselves.

The Conference Board's index of Consumer Confidence improved to 49.5% from a considerably upwardly revised level of 48.7 in October. Originally, the October level was at 47.5%. Consensus expectations were for the consumer confidence level to actually fall to 47.5%. The index saw a big upturn from dismal levels during the spring, but since May consumer confidence has roughly hovered within a few points of 50.