Tax Day Trivia

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The Revenue Act of 1935 introduced the Wealth Tax, a new progressive tax that took up to 75 percent of the highest incomes. Nearly 40 years after the Whiskey Rebellion, one region of the country again felt threatened by a tax – a revenue tariff. The Tariff of 1832 was a protective tariff that significantly taxed imported goods. Infant industries such as the factories in the North benefited from this tariff because people bought more domestic goods. Southern cotton farmers, however, lost business because the English textile industry could not buy as much cotton from the South. South Carolina called for a nullification, or rejection, of the federal tariff and threatened to leave the union.

According to the Tax Foundation, the U.S. tax code was nearly 10.1 million words long as of the end of 2015, and it has grown by an average of 144,500 words per year since 1955. And you wonder why we need tax professionals and/or tax software to help us out.

States Make Residents Pay In Other Ways

The President asked Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member, to develop an “old-age” insurance program. The resulting Social Security Act of 1935 was designed to provide elderly retired workers with pensions. Morton came up with a pretty devious tax method, called Morton’s _______ . Last, but certainly not least, keep in mind just how incredibly cost-efficient the IRS is. For every $100 it collects, the agency spends just $0.35. According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s annual tax analysis in 2016, complying with individual and corporate tax codes cost a whopping $234.4 billion. However, what’s truly eye-popping is the $29.6 billion taxpayers spent on tax software, tax preparation fees, supplies, and other pertinent tax-filing expenses.

What usually ends up happening is that if you’re busted with drugs, you’re taxed on it. It creates a new revenue stream for the jurisdiction, which isn’t all that bad. You can also snag a few dealers on tax evasion too when you throw the book at them. Colorado does not consider the lid of a scalding hot cup of coffee to be “essential packaging.” They tax nonessential packaging at 2.9%. Turbo, Intuit, QuickBooks, QB, TurboTax, ProConnect, and Mint are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc.

Everything You’ve Always Wanted To Know About Taxes (and Some Facts You’d Probably Like To Forget)

President Andrew Jackson stepped in, and a compromise was reached in 1833. As with the percentage of taxpayers who wind up receiving a federal refund, the average amount received varies from year-to-year. As of March 3, 2017, the average refund processed by the IRS was $3,016. Though there is some variance, the average tax refund over the past decade has often ranged between $2,800 and $3,040 more years than not. One the primary reasons people absolutely hate tax time is the complexity of the tax code.

Feminine hygiene products are a necessity for many women, yet most states impose a sales tax on their sale while exempting other necessities, including groceries and medication. There are growing international and domestic movements to end the tax. Some states apply sales tax to children’s diapers because they are considered clothing. The same tax does not apply to adult diapers. Some states offer residents very odd or specific tax credits or deductions. In Alaska, eligible whaling captains can deduct up to $10,000 for whaling-related expenses.

As a result, some people bricked up their windows and new buildings sometimes were designed with fewer windows. Scotland and France imposed similar taxes in the 1700s. Beards are back in vogue, but there were times when having a beard was costly. During the 16th century, King Henry VIII imposed a tax on beards that increased with the wearer’s social status. Eventually the tax was dropped, but his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, reintroduced a beard tax on anyone with more than two weeks’ worth of growth. In Russia, Peter the Great wanted to Westernize the country and required every man, except peasants and clergy, to buy a “beard token” to prove they had paid up. Taxes on products or services that are considered harmful are referred to as sin taxes.

tax trivia

FBT is payable in lieu of the value of fringe benefits provided or deemed to have been provided by an employer to his employees during the previous year. Income which has been earned but not yet received is known as accrued income. Income is recorded in the same accounting period in which it is earned rather than in the subsequent period in which it will be received.

People Spend 8 9 Billion Hours Complying With Federal Tax Laws

According to the Tax Foundation, the U.S. has the third-highest peak marginal corporate tax rate in the world, trailing only the United Arab Emirates and Puerto Rico. This makes luring foreign investment to the U.S. quite the chore. Everything you’ve always wanted to know about taxes (and some facts you’d probably like to forget). 44 Interesting Facts about Olympic Games Costs and Finances Did you know that Olympic athletes are not paid to compete?

Over 1 million accountants are hired each year in America to help with taxes. Excise taxes are also called “sin taxes.” They are taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. Roman emperor Vespasian placed a tax on urine in the 1st century A.D. Urine at that time was collected and used as a source of ammonia for tanning hides and laundering garments. Here at Fact Retriever, even taxes can be fun and interesting. To celebrate the weird, esoteric, and crazy world of taxes, we collected the most amazing tax facts and tax trivia on the Web. In the US, it can pay to be a whistleblower.

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The Revenue Act of 1942 proposed the Victory Tax, the broadest and most progressive tax in American history. By the end of the war in 1945, about 90 percent of American workers submitted income tax forms. Constitution was ratified in 1788, the federal government lacked the power to raise revenue directly.

  • One historian notes that the key to Islam’s phenomenal growth was the use of taxation as an inducement to conversion.
  • French tax collectors were sent to the guillotine in 1789.
  • If the law sounds crazy, it’s only because of the way it was worded.
  • Even though I am out of state right now, we continue to seek her help for our taxes.
  • If only a single dollar bumps a taxpayer into a higher bracket, only that one dollar is taxed at the marginal rate for that bracket.
  • Though extensions do give taxpayers an additional six months to get their returns completed, theydon’t give them extra time to pay their bills.

In Hawaii, property owners may be able to deduct up to $3,000 in expenses related to maintaining a tree with historic or cultural value. Several states, primarily in the southeastern part of the country, have annual sales tax holidays. Delaware has a low 8.7% flat tax on corporations, likely the reason about half of all publicly traded companies in the country consider it home.

In 1913, Congress levied a one percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000, with a six percent surtax on incomes above $500,000. As the nation sought greater revenue to finance the World War I effort, the top rate of the income tax rose to 77 percent. If you’re an old-school tax-filer, just stop! According to TurboTax, the chance of having the IRS find an error on your hand-prepared tax return is 21%! Comparatively, the chance of an error with an electronically filed tax return is just 0.5%.

Aside from the Civil War tax on the Union states, Congress passed a national income tax in 1894, which was ruled unconstitutional the following year by the U.S. Supreme Court in Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company. The Court said it was a direct tax not apportioned according to the population of each state, in violation of Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution. Taxfacts has been doing my family’s taxes, since the late 1990s.

One historian notes that the key to Islam’s phenomenal growth was the use of taxation as an inducement to conversion. Zedekiah, king of the Jews, had his eyes put out by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, for his tax defiance. While religious historians see the defeats and suffering of the Jewish people as part of God’s plan, secular historians see them as a series of tax revolts throughout the centuries. After the Muslims conquered most of the lands of Judea in A.D. 636, they made tax refunds to Christians and Jews in Palestine. However, the Muslim tax system eventually rivaled the worst of the Roman Empire tax systems.

The tax may be due as soon as the drug is in their possession, meaning someone caught with drugs may have to pay a fine for unpaid taxes on top of punishment for their other crimes. To pay the tax anonymously, dealers can buy tax stamps and affix them to containers of controlled substances. The IRSpays people to provide information on someone who did not pay taxes. The whistleblower can get up to 30% of what the IRS collects in back taxes, penalties, and interest. Even celebritiesand business tycoons run into problems when they don’t pay their taxes.

Because this way they can know everything about the tax and finally do the taxes in the right way. So let’s not waste anymore of your time and get you a list of Tax Questions and their answers so you will what you need to do next. The Duck Stamp Act is a direct tax that applies to people over the age of 16 who want to hunt waterfowl. It came about because a group of sportsmen and conservationists lobbied for a program to protect migratory waterfowl and wetlands. Since its inception in 1934, the Duck Stamp has become a popular collector’s item. A person who bought each stamp the year it was issued would have paid around $400 for the stamps by the year 2000 and they would be worth over $5,000 today. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs forced an increase in taxes to generate needed funds.

tax trivia

Some examples include taxes on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and even fast food. One example of a sin tax is Utah’s 10% tax on businesses that have nude or partially nude workers — in other words, strip clubs. The extra tax extends to drinks and food sold on the premises. Madison Square Garden, the iconic New York sports, music, and entertainment venue, has not had to pay property taxes since 1982. The arrangement was supposed to end after 10 years, according to then-mayor Edward Koch, but due to the disputed wording of the agreement, it remains in perpetuity.

Government levy tax on citizens to encourage or discourage certain economic decisions. A tax liability that a company has to pay but does not pay at that current point and it will be responsible for paying it in future is termed a deferred tax. Deferred tax occurs due to the difference in a company’s balance sheet, due to the differences between accounting practices and tax regulations. FBT stands for Fringe Benefit Tax which is a tax that an employer has to pay in respect of the benefits that are given to his/her employees. The longer you wait, the more you’ll owe in interest and penalties if the I.R.S. finds out. You’ll need to fill out a new 1040 with the corrected information, and a 1040x form. We explain how to do all that, plus when and how you should file an amended return in our post on fixing a tax mistake.

Argue that the rich don’t pay their fair share of income taxes all you want, but the data pretty clearly shows that the wealthiest Americans pay a majority of income taxes. In just eight days your federal income tax return is due to be postmarked to the Internal Revenue Service. Considering that recent data released by the IRS shows a decline in year-over-year tax filings, we’ve got quite a few more procrastinators than normal this tax season. 6) 7 states – Alaska, Washington state, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas, Florida. 2 of the states shown do have taxes on certain common investment income – New Hampshire and Tennessee.

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And suppose you were a member of government. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a government.

Other mobsters, including Al’s brother Ralph “Bottles” Capone, Frank Nitti, and Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, were also charged. Among his debts to society, Al Capone had to pay $215,000 plus interest in back taxes. For married taxpayers, the deduction is $24,800. According to the Tax Policy Centerthink tank, 42.8% of tax filers will owe no individual income tax or have negative taxable income for 2020. Federal tax returns were not always due April 15.

The Cato Institute estimates that there are approximately 1.2M tax preparers in the country in 2014. ProPublica has, for several years, reported how Intuit and H&R Block conitnue to lobby against simpler tax filing. Last year, Intuit spent more than $2 million and H&R Block spent $3 million. According to CCH, the number of pages in the tax code and regulations went from 26,300 in 1984 to an 70,000+ in 2014 . Those 1.2M tax preparers are smiling every year. There were 402 tax forms in 1990, by 2002 that number had jumped to a staggering 526. There are over 7 million words in the tax law and regulations.