Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS § 6. Provisions of United States Constitution. 7. Provisions of State Constitutions. 8. History of Income Tax Laws. 9. Income Tax Laws in Force. 10. Economic Aspects of Income Taxation. § 6. Provisions of United States Constitution As originally adopted the Constitution of the United States contained the following provisions with reference to national taxation: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers" (Art. 1, § 2.) "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States" (Art. 1, § 8.) "No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken." (Art. 1, § 9.) During the period of the Civil War and for some time thereafter, that is, between the years 1861 and 1870, successive acts of Congress imposed general taxation upon incomes derived from all sources, for the support of the federal government, without any attempt at apportionment among the states. But it was held by the courts that an income tax is not a direct tax and therefore does not require such apportionment, while the question of the "uniformity" of such acts under the constitutional provision above quoted does not appear to have been raised. But a similar statute enacted in 1894 was adjudged unconstitutional, in so far as it applied to incomes derived from the renting of real property or from the investment of personal property, for lack of apportion...