April 14 -- it's a taxing situation with a curious history

ESSENTIAL NEWS. April 10, 2025. Florida Weekly

Tax Day—April 15—is just around the corner, so I thought it would be interesting to explore its history, which, as it turns out, shows just how quirky our politics have been.

The first income tax was issued by Congress during the Civil War in 1861, a flat tax of 3 percent on all incomes over $800. But with the war’s end, the tax was eventually repealed i…