What is the Sixteenth Amendment
- Steven Topazio wrote this September 3, 2024 at 8:54 pm
The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1913, grants Congress the power to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on the United States Census. The text of the Sixteenth Amendment reads:
“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.”
Key points of the Sixteenth Amendment include:
Power to Tax Income: It authorizes Congress to impose a tax on individuals’ and businesses’ incomes, regardless of the source of that income.
No Apportionment Requirement: Unlike other direct taxes, the income tax does not need to be apportioned among the states based on population. This means that the tax does not have to be distributed in proportion to each state’s population.
Independence from Census: The imposition of the income tax is not dependent on any census or enumeration. This allows the federal government to tax income consistently and uniformly.
The Sixteenth Amendment was a response to a Supreme Court decision in 1895 (Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co.) that had ruled a previous federal income tax unconstitutional because it was a direct tax not apportioned according to state populations. The amendment thus paved the way for the modern federal income tax system, providing a significant and stable source of revenue for the federal government.