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Stressed About Your Taxes? Blame Wisconsin
April 15 is America's tax day, the dreaded filing date for state and federal income taxes. But April 15 wasn't always saddled with this ominous deadline. And Wisconsin was actually the first state to impose a personal income tax system. For more than 50 years after statehood, Wisconsin had relied on property taxes to finance state government. It worked pretty well; as an agricultural state, property was a good measure of wealth. As Wisconsin became more industrial, however, fewer people earned their income from the land so a tax on property began to seem unfair. Despite calls for an income tax, the U.S. Supreme Court declared a federal income tax unconstitutional.
Wisconsin decided to go ahead with plans for an income tax anyway, though it would require an amendment to the state constitution. Voters approved the state income tax amendment in 1908, and the Legislative Reference Bureau, led by Charles McCarthy, along with tax expert Delos Kinsman of Whitewater went to work devising a tax system.
The Legislature passed the new income tax law in 1911 as part of a whole host of progressive reforms. Among the new tax system's innovations (besides being the first income tax in the nation) was a revenue sharing provision that decreed that 90 percent of all taxes collected would go back to local governments. A federal income tax, based on the Wisconsin model, was adopted in 1913 with the passage of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.
April 15 has only been the filing date since 1955. Before then, federal taxes were due in March. Originally, Congress had chosen March 1 as the filing date, but the Revenue Act of 1918 mysteriously moved the date forward to March 15. It was changed again to April 15 after another system tax code overhaul in 1955.
In 2006, due to the vagaries of the calendar, taxes are actually due on Monday, April 17. Confused? The IRS is just a click away.
:: Posted April 14, 2006
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