Before stating the purpose of the sixteenth amendment, I first need to tell what the sixteenth amendment is. The 16th amendment allowed the government to create income taxes. This meant that Americans had to pay money to the government from their income. This also meant that the government could take land and income from Americans who didn't pay the taxes. Before the amendment, there were acts that were passed to make Americans pay income taxes. For example, the Tax Act of 1862 and the Income Tax Act of 1894 were acts preceding the amendment. These acts led way to the 16th amendment which was ratified in 1913.
The purpose of the 16th amendment was to give the government money to run the country. With the power to tax people, the government revenue during this time increased from all the money they received. I think that this amendment was very beneficial. Though, Americans weren’t very happy about losing part of their income the money was put to good use. The money the government collected could be used to build public facilities and roads that help better the US and Americans. Overall, I believe the 16 amendment had a good purpose.
The sixteenth amendment states that "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." This basically means that the congress can collect taxes without states interfering in the tax collection. There were many reasons why this amendment was added to the constitution. Congress was now able to deduct money from people's salaries with this new amendment. This gave the government a lot of money and was very important to them. They could do som much with all the money collected. However, there were doubts that this could be abused. I would be very suspicious with this. Still if used correctly this amendment will be very beneficial to our nation.
Before i state the purpose of the 16th amendment, I'll say what it actually is. It is the amendment that lets the government create income taxes. That means that the government gets a certain amount of money from everyone's paycheck. For example, if someone gets $100 a week, the government would take maybe $5 in income tax. Also, if the employee isn't paying his income tax, the government can go to his employer and collect it directly from him. Like if Johnny wasn't paying his income tax, the government would go to his boss, Billy, and say because Johnny isn't paying us, you are going to pay us his income tax instead of giving it to him. This is called garnishing someone's wages.
Now to purpose of the 16th amendment. The basic purpose summed up was the be able to pay for the government and other things like that. Income tax pays for places like fire departments, police stations, courthouses, post offices, and more. Income tax also pays everyone who works at all of those places. So basically all employees are contributing to the payment for police officers, judges, firemen, and more. Income taxes also goes to community places like parks, libraries, public schools and anything basically that is owned by the government.
sources: Jessica and Arjun's posts my dad
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Molly :)
1/27/2010 10:31:01 am
As for supporters and non supporters go for having to pay income taxes and the 16th amendment, i am a supporter. I basically am because my dad is. I'm not going to write his opinion down, I will write mine. Even though i don't pay income taxes, I would hate to. Everyone should though because that is what funds the government. People's income taxes basically pays for the city. It pays for our buildings, the people who fight for us, and people who teach us. Everyone pays for each others businesses and jobs. My dad gets his paycheck, and the income tax from it could go to police officer or a fireman, or to the building of a new school, or courthouse. So basically, I'm saying i support the idea of income taxes, even though i would hate to pay them. (I would hate to because I would be losing some of the money in my "paycheck")
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Arjun Rajesh
2/12/2010 11:47:12 pm
There are a few problems with the sixteenth amendment. For one their might be a state with very wealthy people or a large state with a large population. They might put in more money and end up with the equal resources as the states with a small population. That is certainly an issue. I think that this amendment was still very important even though it isn't perfectly fair. Without this amendment it would be a problem to build schools, hospitals, and many other important resources. We would not be able to go to school today if not for this amendment. An advantage is that the states will have less control. If the states have too much individual power that is when taxation begins to rise and the country starts to fall. I support this amendment because of this.
My parents
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Jessica Reed
3/5/2010 12:06:37 pm
The sixteenth amendment was a result of a debate over income tax and the lowering tariffs in the late 1800s. In 1894, the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was created in order to lower tariffs and re-establish an income tax. This was all in hopes of helping the middle and lower class because previously they had suffered from high tariffs. Yet, when the act was made into law, many Republicans and the wealthy were upset by the act because they were losing money from the income tax. Consequently, there were court cases debating how unconstitutional the act was, and one case was practically controversial. Pollock vs. the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company case established that the Wilson Gorman Tariff Act was a direct tax, therefore unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. However, Congress decided that the wealthy could deal with the income tax so they made the act into to an amendment, the 16th amendment.
I think that Congress was right to create the 16th amendment because the middle and lower class were in really deep financial trouble from the high tariffs. Also, the wealthy had enough money to pay for a small income tax, and they should have been more considerate to the many Americans suffering during that time. Overall, I think the purpose of the 16th amendment was really logical.
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