50 Fun Facts About Tax Day

Since 1955, US Tax Day has typically fallen on or just after which date?

It moves when the date hits a weekend or Emancipation Day in Washington, DC.

When federal income tax began in 1913, what was the filing deadline?

It moved to March 15 in 1918 and to April 15 in 1955.

Which amendment, ratified in 1913, let Congress tax incomes without apportioning by state population?

It overturned the Supreme Court's 1895 Pollock decision, which had struck down an earlier income tax.

Which 1895 Supreme Court case struck down the federal income tax?

The Court ruled that unapportioned taxes on interest, dividends and rents were effectively direct taxes.

The first US federal income tax was introduced in 1861 to fund what?

It was a flat 3% on incomes above $800, signed by Abraham Lincoln.

What was the rate of the 1861 income tax on incomes above $800?

The 1862 Act replaced the flat rate with a progressive scale of 3% and 5%.

The IRS traces its origin to the Office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, created in which year?

The wartime income tax funded over a fifth of the Union's war costs before it lapsed a decade later.

In 1953 the federal tax bureau adopted the name it still uses. What is it?

The IRS collects roughly 96% of the federal government's operational funding.

Why is the main US individual tax return numbered 1040?

The first 1040, for tax year 1913, was three pages and 31 lines long.

Which two simplified versions of the main individual tax return were dropped for tax year 2018?

Six new schedules were split out that year to make parts of the main form optional.

Limited electronic filing of US tax returns first became possible in which year?

The 1998 Restructuring Act later reorganised the IRS into four operating divisions.

Tax Day is pushed back when April 15 collides with which Washington, DC holiday?

Because the IRS observes DC holidays, the whole country gets the extension.

In which year did Lincoln sign the April 16 act freeing about 3,100 enslaved people in the District of Columbia?

It freed about 3,100 people in the District nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation.

Which New England holiday has occasionally given Maine and Massachusetts filers an extra day?

Post offices in those states are closed on the day.

In 2020 the federal filing deadline was pushed to which date because of the COVID-19 pandemic?

In 2021 it moved again, to May 17.

Al Capone was finally jailed in 1931 for what crime?

He was convicted on five of twenty-two counts and sentenced to eleven years.

How long was Al Capone's 1931 federal prison sentence?

He was moved to the newly opened Alcatraz in August 1934.

Actor Wesley Snipes was convicted in 2008 of what tax offence?

The misdemeanor convictions brought a three-year sentence; he served 28 months.

Hotelier Leona Helmsley was reported to have said that only whom pay taxes?

The 'Queen of Mean' served 19 months and later left $12 million to her dog, Trouble.

Leona Helmsley's will originally left how much to her Maltese dog, Trouble?

A court cut it to $2 million as excessive; Fortune ranked it among 2007's dumbest business moments.

Benjamin Franklin's 'nothing is certain except death and taxes' came in a 1789 letter about what?

Earlier versions appear in Defoe (1726) and Christopher Bullock's The Cobbler of Preston (1716).

The all-time-high US top marginal income tax rate of 94% applied during which years?

It hit incomes above $200,000; the top rate was still 92% in 1952-53.

As of 2023, how many US states imposed a state income tax?

New Hampshire then taxed only interest and dividends; it repealed that tax from 2025. Payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare are levied on wages regardless of state.

Who invented 'Tax Freedom Day' in 1948?

He trademarked the phrase and handed it to the Tax Foundation on retiring in 1971.

The Boston Tea Party of December 1773 destroyed roughly how many chests of tea?

The Sons of Liberty, some dressed as Mohawks, dumped about 92,616 pounds of tea into the harbour.

Britain's Stamp Act of 1765 taxed which colonial goods?

The tax had to be paid in British currency and was repealed in March 1766.

England's window tax, blamed for bricked-up windows, was introduced in 1696 and repealed in which year?

France had a similar tax from 1798 to 1926.

Which Russian ruler introduced a beard tax in 1698 to westernise his subjects?

Payers carried a copper 'beard token'; Catherine the Great repealed the tax in 1772.

Roughly how far did Gandhi walk to Dandi on the 1930 Salt March?

He set out with 78 volunteers on a 24-day march and made salt by evaporation on 6 April.

Legend says Lady Godiva rode naked through which English city to win a tax cut for its people?

'Peeping Tom' comes from later versions, in which a man named Thomas watched and was struck blind.

The Rosetta Stone, key to deciphering hieroglyphs, records a decree of 196 BC on behalf of which king?

The same text appears in hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek scripts.

Britain's hat tax of 1784-1811 reserved the death penalty for what?

Retailers had to display a sign reading 'Dealer in Hats by Retail'.

Which country introduced, then abolished within about a year, a 'fat tax' on saturated fat in 2011-12?

The government said it failed to change eating habits and pushed shoppers across the border.

The modern 'jock tax' took off in 1991 when California taxed which team's players after the NBA Finals?

Illinois retaliated with a jock tax of its own; Florida, Texas and Washington still have none.

As of 2019, how many US states had no state sales tax at all?

Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.

Which country in 2004 became one of the first to scrap sales tax on tampons and pads?

Canada, India, Colombia, Australia, Germany and Rwanda later followed.

Tax Day is close to April 5, the end of the British tax year, which derives from which old quarter day?

Lady Day was March 25 on the old Julian calendar, when rents fell due and servants were hired.

Which IRS commissioner refused Nixon's request to audit his enemies and was later fired?

His successor locked the enemies list in a safe and gave it to Congress after Watergate broke.

Roughly what share of the US government's operating funds did the IRS collect in FY2023?

It brought in about $4.7 trillion that year.

In 2023 winter disasters led the IRS to extend most of California's filing deadline to which date?

Some counties got until November 16.

The 1998 IRS Restructuring Act listed offences requiring immediate firing of IRS staff. What were they nicknamed?

The Act also reorganised the agency around four operating divisions.

On the first page of Form 1040, taxpayers can tick a box sending $3 to what?

The check-off does not change the tax the filer owes.

What was the federal filing deadline from 1918 until it moved to April 15 in 1955?

The date now shifts only when April 15 hits a weekend or a holiday such as DC's Emancipation Day.

In 2021, COVID relief law changes pushed the federal filing deadline from April 15 to which date?

A year earlier the pandemic had pushed Tax Day all the way to July 15.

Why did New England filers once get an extra day when Patriots' Day fell on Tax Day?

Unionised staff at the Andover processing centre had the day off; the extension was dropped once filings were routed to Hartford, Charlotte and Kansas City.

Roughly how much did the IRS collect in fiscal year 2023?

It processed more than 271 million returns that year, including 163 million individual income tax returns.

For how long is the Commissioner of Internal Revenue appointed by the president?

Since the 1953 reorganisation the commissioner has been the only political appointee at the agency apart from the Chief Counsel.

In which year did the Social Security number start being used for taxpayer identification?

By 1967 every return was processed by computer and punched-card entry had been phased out.

Which computer processed 1.1 million returns in Kansas City in 1955, the IRS's first computer trial?

Full computerisation was authorised in 1959 with IBM 1401 and 7070 systems in regional centres.

Which IRS commissioner locked Nixon's enemies list in his safe and later gave it to Congress?

He succeeded Randolph Thrower, who had refused the White House's request to audit its political opponents.