Today’s Tax Day, Only…It’s Not.

A World War II era IRS poster.

Did you know that for the last 64 years (since 1955) the United States’ Tax Day has been April 15? When April 15 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, tax returns are due the following Tuesday.

America’s tax history is, in fact, pretty interesting. For someone who’s paid taxes for decades, I must admit this information was new to me.

• Congress passed the 16th Amendment creating the income tax on February 3, 1913. It taxed income above $4,000 and designated the first tax deadline as March 1, 1913.

• The Revenue Act of 1918 moved the deadline to March 15 while also imposing a 77% tax on the highest income to help fund World War I.

• The Depression lowered incomes so significantly that people stopped paying taxes. Congress raised rates and eliminated exemptions to fund World War II, and it became a patriotic duty to pay taxes. The Treasury Department began withholding tax payments from workers' paychecks, and the W-2 was born. 

There’s a lot of information about the IRS, taxes, and the Treasury, on the internet. And now there’s a new bit of tax history:

This year following President Trump’s emergency declaration of the Stafford Act (a federal law pertaining to natural disasters), taxpayers don’t have to pay their federal income taxes until July 15, 2020.

Author Margaret Mitchell said, “Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them.”