Q 01/05

Which Disney character starred in The New Spirit, a 1942 cartoon urging Americans to pay their income tax?

A) Mickey Mouse

B) Donald Duck

C) Pinocchio

D) Minnie Mouse

Answer · why

B) Donald Duck

Donald Duck starred in the short, which Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. commissioned from Walt Disney to back the war effort. It earned an Aca...

Q 02/05

Which conflict prompted the first US federal income tax, a flat 3 percent levy on incomes above $800?

A) War of 1812

B) Mexican-American War

C) American Civil War

D) Spanish-American War

Answer · why

C) American Civil War

The American Civil War left Washington short of money, so Abraham Lincoln signed the tax in August 1861. A year later Congress swapped the flat rate f...

Q 03/05

Which gangster's 1931 income tax conviction followed a 1927 ruling that illegally earned money can be taxed?

A) Al Capone

B) Dutch Schultz

C) Bugsy Siegel

D) Lucky Luciano

Answer · why

A) Al Capone

Al Capone drew eleven years in federal prison. Prosecutor Mabel Walker Willebrandt had first tried her theory on a South Carolina bootlegger, who argu...

Q 04/05

Richard Hatch went to prison for failing to report the $1 million he won on which reality show's debut season?

A) Big Brother

B) The Amazing Race

C) American Idol

D) Survivor

Answer · why

D) Survivor

Survivor crowned Richard Hatch its first winner in 2000, and a jury convicted him on tax charges in 2006. He served fifty-one months, then nine more f...

Q 05/05

Which board game long made players landing on Income Tax choose between paying $200 or ten percent of their holdings?

A) Easy Money

B) Acquire

C) Monopoly

D) Careers

Answer · why

C) Monopoly

Monopoly dropped the choice in 2008, when the US edition moved to a flat $200. Under the old rule players had to decide before they were allowed to ad...