Timeline 1900 to 1950

1948 Stuart v. Chinese Chamber of Commerce, 168 F.2d 709, 712 (9th Cir.,1948)
This case holds a signficant point of arugment.
"The revenue laws are a code or system in regulation of tax assessment
and collection. They relate to taxpayers AND NOT TO NON-TAXPAYERS. The
latter are without their scope. No procedure is prescribed for non-
taxpayers, and no attempt is made to annul any of their rights and
remedies in due course of law. With them Congress does not assume to
deal, and THEY ARE NEITHER OF THE SUBJECT NOR OF THE OBJECT OF THE
REVENUE LAWS."
This was later confirmed in the case Long V Rasmussen, 281 F. 236, 238

Today people who believe they are non-taxapayers are trying to use taxpayer methods to get their property returned to them, which was taken in case of a tax liablity, and many claim they have no choice as the courts have told them to file a 1040 to get the property back. Using a 1040 is a taxpayer method.

Under this case, it is clear that one can be a taxpayer for one tax imposed and a non taxpayer for another tax imposed.




1939. Internal Revenue code, the first tax law, is not law, it is code. It does not defined the word income, but does define gross income - 2 facts many people still argue are flaws in the system.

CORRECTION: (Thanks to Al for this info).
This is a very common misconception. The Internal Revenue Code of 1939 was merely a codification of Volume 53, Part 1, of the U.S. Statutes At Large - done to make it easier to find internal revenue statutes.

In 1919, a committee was formed to codify the Statutes At Large into categories - there were so many statutes on the books that it was very difficult to find them & very easy to miss something important. In 1926 the 1st codification came out & that work continues to this day. New laws passed you may not find in the U.S. Code for quite some time, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, it means you have to look thru the Statutes At Large, until they are sorted into one of the 50 Titles of the U.S. Code.

Today the Internal Revenue Code is found primarily in U.S.C. Title 26, but also in Title 27, Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. And the Regulations are found primarily in Titles 26 & 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations. And while neither the Internal Revenue Code purchased as a book separately, nor the corresponding sections of the U.S.C. & CFR are "positive law", they are codification of Statutes At Large & Treasury Regulations which are.


1916. The Supreme Court in Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, 240 U.S. 1 (1916), indicated that the amendment did not expand the federal government's existing power to tax income (meaning profit or gain from any source) but rather removed the possibility of classifying an income tax as a direct tax on the basis of the source of the income. The Amendment removed the need for the income tax to be apportioned among the states on the basis of population. Income taxes are required, however, to abide by the law of geographical uniformity. In other words, the tax is an Excise tax, that does not require apportionment.

1913 Secretary of State Knox declares the 16th amendment ratified. Numberous challenges to his declaration result all the way to present day, due to the process being seen by some people as being flawed due to the way some states changed the words in the original amendment proposed. Lawsuits over this amendment began and the arguing about of the proper application of the income tax has never stopped.

Due to the political difficulties of taxing individual wages without taxing income from property, a federal income tax was impractical from the time of the Pollock decision until the time of ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment.


In 1913, the top tax rate was 7% on incomes above $500,000 ($10 million 2007 dollars).

During World War I, the top rate rose to 77% and the income threshold to be in this top bracket increased to $1,000,000 ($16 million 2007 dollars); after the war, the top rate was scaled down to a low of 24% and the income threshold for paying this rate fell to a low of $100,000 ($1 million 2007 dollars).

During the Great Depression and World War II, the top income tax rate rose from pre-war levels. In 1939, the top rate was 75% applied to incomes above $5,000,000 ($75 million 2007 dollars). During 1944 and 1945, the top rate was its all-time high at 94% applied to income above $200,000.

Editors Note: Title 26, is the 26th title of the United States Federal Statutes at large. A listing of all 50 Titles, shown on the first pages of every Title, shows that Title 26 is Non-postivie law, that it is "prima facia". Meaning at first glance. While other titles reflect that actual laws as passed by the congress, Title 26 is one of the few that still remain "non positive law" and that fact has led to a lot of citizens arguing that the law can only apply to specific people, and not be broadly applied to the American public in general.