QuoteThe Founding Fathers and the generation of leaders that followed them weren't big on the idea of an income tax. Tariffs and sales taxes helped fund the federal government in the early days. But the financial needs of the Civil War led to the first national income tax.

The Civil War income tax instituted by the federal government was one of several financing tools it used against the Confederacy. However, its constitutionality was challenged in multiple states. The government also issued bonds and used excise taxes. The Confederacy also had its own version of an income tax, too, which wasn't as effective. The Union's income tax went away during the period of Reconstruction.

By the time President Taft took office in 1909, the public outcry had grown over a tax system that undertaxed the rich and overtaxed the poor. In June 1909, Taft sent a letter to Congress during the debate in Congress over the Payne-Aldrich tariff to lobby for the 16th Amendment. He explained that part of the Pollack decision allowed the federal government to levy a corporate income tax as an excise tax. "The decision in the Pollock case left power in the National Government to levy an excise tax, which accomplishes the same purpose as a corporate income tax and is free from certain objections urged to the proposed income tax measure," he said.

Congress passed its resolution about the 16th Amendment a month later, but the amendment wasn't ratified until February 3, 1913 when Delaware became the 36th state to ratify it. Incoming President Woodrow Wilson pushed for the Revenue Act of 1913, which included the income tax along with changes in tariffs.

The first 1040 form appeared in 1914. It was three pages long.

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/how-we-wound-up-with-a-national-income-tax#When:11:10:00Z