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ORIGINAL: DomKen

Which is quite obviously not true. Simply reading the various senator's speeches during the ratification debate makes that clear even if you didn't know anything at all about the reason the 16th was put forward in the first place.

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ORIGINAL: shannie

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ORIGINAL: DomKen

Which is quite obviously not true. Simply reading the various senator's speeches during the ratification debate makes that clear even if you didn't know anything at all about the reason the 16th was put forward in the first place.

I haven't studied this issue extensively, but I've read some excerpts from those speeches that seem to support that premise that the purpose of the amendment was to tax earnings from capital, and not earnings from wages. 

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ORIGINAL: DomKen
Then you read the fabrications and quote mines of the tax evasion movement. The debate was clearly about taxing income including wages. The previous income tax had just been declared unconstitutional and this was a conscious effort to produce an ammendment that would allow income of all sorts to be taxed.

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ORIGINAL: DomKen
Then you read the fabrications and quote mines of the tax evasion movement. The debate was clearly about taxing income including wages. The previous income tax had just been declared unconstitutional and this was a conscious effort to produce an ammendment that would allow income of all sorts to be taxed.

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ORIGINAL: shannie

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ORIGINAL: DomKen
Then you read the fabrications and quote mines of the tax evasion movement. The debate was clearly about taxing income including wages. The previous income tax had just been declared unconstitutional and this was a conscious effort to produce an ammendment that would allow income of all sorts to be taxed.

Here's a link to (what purports to be) the entire congressional record pertaining to the passage of the 16th Amendment:

http://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/History/Congress/1909-16thAmendCongrRecord.pdf

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ORIGINAL: subfever

The Democratic congressman seems to believe that the people are the servants of the government, instead of the government being the servant of the people. 

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ORIGINAL: DomKen
On page 167 of the PDF you will find a speech by a democratic congressman which includes this :
"To my mind the income tax is the most equitable of all systems of taxation. It is the ideal way to support the Government. Let those who prosper little pay little, for they are least indebted to the Government; let those who prosper more pay more; let those who prosper most pay most; let those who prosper greatly pay greatly, for certainly they have been most blessed and are therefore most indebted to the Government."

If income doesn't equal wages why would those who prosper little pay little? Surely if it wasn't on wages they would pay not at all?

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ORIGINAL: shannie

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ORIGINAL: DomKen
On page 167 of the PDF you will find a speech by a democratic congressman which includes this :
"To my mind the income tax is the most equitable of all systems of taxation. It is the ideal way to support the Government. Let those who prosper little pay little, for they are least indebted to the Government; let those who prosper more pay more; let those who prosper most pay most; let those who prosper greatly pay greatly, for certainly they have been most blessed and are therefore most indebted to the Government."

If income doesn't equal wages why would those who prosper little pay little? Surely if it wasn't on wages they would pay not at all?

A lot of the debate centers around the complaint that the common man was required to pay tariffs (i.e. taxes) on goods, and corporations were profiting greatly from these tariffs and yet not not being taxed in proportion. So, through the 16th Amendment, they sought to shift the greater part of the tax burden to corporations and the very-wealthy. 

On the other hand -- if the common man was subjected to taxes on goods AND taxes on his earned income,  he'd get the double whammy (as he does).  But (again, arguably) that wasn't the intent of the amendment.

In other words, tariffs on goods already taxed the earned income, now it was time to tax the unearned income.

One speaker, arguing for the income tax, says: “An income tax seeks to reach the unearned wealth of the country and to make it pay its share.”  (page 178 of the PDF).

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ORIGINAL: DomKen
But the great thing about the speech I quoted is that that misconception is neatly laid to rest by the next speaker. If you read along to page 168 you will find an impassioned argument against a corporate income tax if the individual income tax is not also instituted. And the speaker does directly compare two grocers one incorporated and one not making the same amount. So that speaker also viewed the tax as one on earnings. And to top it off he ends his speech by saying that he hopes the states do consider "a constitutional amendment permiting a tax upon all kinds of income."