For anyone who’s ever wondered why the federal government gets a taste of your annual earnings like some kind of mafia godfather, the answer goes all the way back to the Civil War. And the saga doesn’t end until the turn of the 20th century. It’s safe to say that no one who saw income taxes as a temporary, extraordinary measure ever thought we would still have one more than 160 years later.

The Civil War Resulted in America’s First-Ever Income Tax
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