Tax Form 1040 From 1913: Look How Far We’ve Come

Yesterday was April 15 the tax filing deadline. I bet you were in a great mood. So to cheer you up I thought you would like to know what the original 1040 tax form looked like. The 1913 form 1040, complete with instructions can be seen here.

Here are the original tax rates and income brackets.

1% of income over $20,000 but not exceeding $50,000

2% . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$75,000

3% . . . . . . . . . . . . . $75,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100,000

4% . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $250,000

5% . . . . . . . . . . . . .$250,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$500,000

6% . . . . . . . . . . . . .$500,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I bet you wish these were the rates today, and the form was this simple to fill out.

The people who passed the 16 amendment were either duped or stupid. In their wildest dreams they could have never imagine it would lead to the almost incomprehensible 73,954 page tax code that we have today.

This graph is from Wolters Kluwer CCH, is shows the growth in the tax code since its inception in 1913.

CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter Tax Law Pile Up 2013

Here are the tax rates and income brackets today. We should be proud of how far we have evolved, or devolved, in the last 100 years.

2013 Tax Brackets (for taxes due April 15, 2014)
Tax rate	Single filers	Married filing jointly or qualifying widow/widower	Married filing separately	Head of household
10%	Up to $8,925	Up to $17,850	Up to $8,925	Up to $12,750
15%	$8,926 to $36,250	$17,851 to $72,500	$8,926 to $36,250	$12,751 to $48,600
25%	$36,251 to $87,850	$72,501 to $146,400	$36,251 to $73,200	$48,601 to $125,450
28%	$87,851 to $183,250	$146,401 to $223,050	$73,201 to $111,525	$125,451 to $203,150
33%	$183,251 to $398,350	$223,051 to $398,350	$111,526 to $199,175	$203,151 to $398,350
35%	$398,351 to $400,000	$398,351 to $450,000	$199,176 to $225,000	$398,351 to $425,000
39.6%	$400,001 or more	$450,001 or more	$225,001 or more	$425,001 or more

This is yet another example of why we should never believe politicians and bureaucrats when they tell us that giving them more power will benefit us. What kind of monstrosity do you think the 2500 page Affordable Care Act will grow into? How stupid will future generations think we were for passing it into law?

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This entry was posted on April 16, 2014 at 1:31 am and is filed under Government and Politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: 16th Amendment, 1913 Original Tax Form, Government Power, Growth Of Tax Code, Tax Brackets, Tax Day April 15

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