Tax Day
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This Tax Day trivia quiz has 45 free questions with answers and covers the April 15 deadline and how it got there, from Lincoln's Civil War income tax and the Sixteenth Amendment to Form 1040, e-filing, Emancipation Day extensions and the pandemic postponements. Then it goes wider: Al Capone, Wesley Snipes and Leona Helmsley's little people; the Boston Tea Party and Stamp Act; England's window and hat taxes, Peter the Great's beard tax, Gandhi's Salt March and Lady Godiva; and modern oddities like the jock tax, Denmark's fat tax and the tampon tax. It works as an office icebreaker on filing day or as a history round for a trivia night. The first questions are easy; the last few will stretch accountants. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Since 1955, US Tax Day has typically fallen on or just after which date?
April 15
April 15 has been the federal filing deadline since 1955; it slips to the next business day when the 15th falls on a weekend or a Washington, DC holiday.
Q 02When federal income tax began in 1913, what was the filing deadline?
March 1
March 1 was the deadline set by the 1913 Revenue Act, so the first Form 1040 returns were due on 1 March 1914.
Q 03Which amendment, ratified in 1913, let Congress tax incomes without apportioning by state population?
Sixteenth
It overturned the Supreme Court's 1895 Pollock decision, which had struck down an earlier income tax.
Q 04Which 1895 Supreme Court case struck down the federal income tax?
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust (1895) held that taxing income from property (rents, dividends, interest) was a direct tax that had to be apportioned, killing the 1894 income tax.
Q 05The first US federal income tax was introduced in 1861 to fund what?
The Civil War
The Civil War: the Revenue Act of 1861, signed by Abraham Lincoln that August, created the first federal income tax to pay for the Union war effort.
Q 06What was the rate of the 1861 income tax on incomes above $800?
3%
3%: the 1861 act levied a flat 3% on income over $800; the next year's act replaced it with 3% on income above $600 and 5% above $10,000.
Q 07The IRS traces its origin to the Office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, created in which year?
1862
The wartime income tax funded over a fifth of the Union's war costs before it lapsed a decade later.
Q 08Which two simplified versions of the main individual tax return were dropped for tax year 2018?
1040-A and 1040-EZ
Forms 1040-A and 1040-EZ were retired for tax year 2018, when the IRS folded them into a redesigned Form 1040 backed by six new numbered schedules.
Q 09Limited electronic filing of US tax returns first became possible in which year?
1986
1986: the IRS ran its first electronic-filing pilot that year, accepting about 25,000 returns from a handful of tax preparers in three cities before taking e-file nationwide by 1990.
Q 10Tax Day is pushed back when April 15 collides with which Washington, DC holiday?
Emancipation Day
Emancipation Day, the April 16 DC holiday marking the end of slavery in the District, counts as a legal holiday for the IRS, so a clash with April 15 moves the deadline for everyone.
Q 11Which New England holiday has occasionally given Maine and Massachusetts filers an extra day?
Patriots' Day
Patriots' Day, the third-Monday-in-April holiday in Massachusetts and Maine marking Lexington and Concord, has on several occasions given those states' filers one extra day.
Q 12In 2020 the federal filing deadline was pushed to which date because of the COVID-19 pandemic?
July 15
July 15, 2020: the Treasury pushed both the filing and payment deadlines back three months after the pandemic shut offices in March 2020.
Q 13Al Capone was finally jailed in 1931 for what crime?
Tax evasion
Tax evasion: in October 1931 a federal jury convicted Capone on three counts of evading income tax and two of failing to file, crimes prosecutors could prove when his violence could not be.
Q 21Who invented 'Tax Freedom Day' in 1948?
Businessman Dallas Hostetler
Dallas Hostetler, a Florida businessman, coined and trademarked 'Tax Freedom Day' in 1948 and transferred it to the Tax Foundation when he retired in 1971.
Q 22The Boston Tea Party of December 1773 destroyed roughly how many chests of tea?
342
342 chests: on 16 December 1773 the Sons of Liberty, some dressed as Mohawks, dumped about 92,000 pounds of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.
Q 23Britain's Stamp Act of 1765 taxed which colonial goods?
Printed paper and playing cards
Q 14How long was Al Capone's 1931 federal prison sentence?
Eleven years
Eleven years: Judge James Wilkerson sentenced Capone in October 1931 to 11 years and a $50,000 fine; he served in Atlanta and then Alcatraz from August 1934.
Q 15Actor Wesley Snipes was convicted in 2008 of what tax offence?
Willful failure to file returns
Willful failure to file returns: a Florida jury convicted Snipes in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts for 1999-2001 while acquitting him of felony fraud and conspiracy; he got three years.
Q 16Hotelier Leona Helmsley was reported to have said that only whom pay taxes?
The little people
'Only the little people pay taxes' was attributed to Helmsley by a former housekeeper at her 1989 tax-evasion trial; the 'Queen of Mean' served about 19 months.
Q 17Leona Helmsley's will originally left how much to her Maltese dog, Trouble?
$12 million
$12 million: Helmsley's 2007 will left that sum in trust for her Maltese, Trouble, while cutting out two grandchildren; a judge later reduced the dog's share to $2 million.
Q 18Benjamin Franklin's 'nothing is certain except death and taxes' came in a 1789 letter about what?
The newly established Constitution
The newly established Constitution: writing to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in November 1789, Franklin said the new Constitution promised permanency, 'but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.'
Q 19The all-time-high US top marginal income tax rate of 94% applied during which years?
1944-1945
1944-1945: the wartime top rate of 94% applied to taxable income over $200,000 in those two years, and the top rate stayed above 90% through 1963.
Q 20As of 2023, how many US states levied no tax on wage and salary income?
Nine
Nine: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming taxed no wages in 2023; New Hampshire taxed only interest and dividends.
Printed paper and playing cards: the 1765 Stamp Act required stamped paper for newspapers, legal documents and pamphlets, and even taxed playing cards and dice; it was repealed in March 1766.
Q 24England's window tax, blamed for bricked-up windows, was introduced in 1696 and repealed in which year?
1851
1851: England's window tax, introduced under William III in 1696, was finally repealed in 1851 after campaigners branded it a tax on light and air.
Q 25Which Russian ruler introduced a beard tax in 1698 to westernise his subjects?
Peter the Great
Peter the Great imposed the beard tax in 1698 after his Grand Embassy to western Europe; payers carried a copper 'beard token', and Catherine the Great abolished the tax in 1772.
Q 26Roughly how far did Gandhi walk to Dandi on the 1930 Salt March?
240 miles
About 240 miles (390 km): Gandhi and 78 volunteers walked from Sabarmati Ashram to the coast at Dandi over 24 days, making salt on 6 April 1930 in defiance of the British salt tax.
Q 27Legend says Lady Godiva rode naked through which English city to win a tax cut for its people?
Coventry
Coventry: in the legend, first written down in the 13th century, Godiva rode through Coventry's market so her husband Leofric would lift his oppressive tolls; 'Peeping Tom' was added centuries later.
Q 28Which king's 196 BC decree, granting temples tax breaks, is recorded on the Rosetta Stone?
Ptolemy V
Ptolemy V: the Rosetta Stone carries a priestly decree of 196 BC honouring the boy king and recording his tax remissions for the temples, in hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek.
Q 29Britain's hat tax of 1784-1811 reserved the death penalty for what?
Forging hat-tax stamps
Forging hat-tax stamps: the 1784 duty was paid via a stamp stuck inside the hat lining, and counterfeiting one was a capital offence; retailers had to display 'Dealer in Hats by Retail'.
Q 30Which country introduced, then abolished within about a year, a 'fat tax' on saturated fat in 2011-12?
Denmark
Denmark introduced the world's first saturated-fat tax in October 2011 and scrapped it in January 2013, citing higher prices, cross-border shopping in Germany and no change in eating habits.