BS, provide the link. I believe that they toyed with the idea of a 10% max, but thought better of it, as the top rate originally was 3%, and thought that might simply encourage raising it that high unnecessarily.
In 1894, a Democratic-led Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman tariff. This imposed the first peacetime income tax. The rate was 2% on income over $4000, which meant fewer than 10% of households would pay any. The purpose of the income tax was to make up for revenue that would be lost by tariff reductions.[7] This was a controversial provision, and the law actually passed with the signature of President Grover Cleveland. {Wiki}
In 1909, fifteen years after Pollock, Congress took two actions to deal with their increasing revenue needs.
1. Corporate income ("excise") tax. First, they passed a corporate income tax, but labeled it an “excise tax.” The tax was set at 1% on all incomes exceeding $5,000. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this corporate “excise tax” as constitutional in Flint v. Stone Tracy Company, in which the court ruled that the tax was a special excise tax on the privilege of doing business.
2. Sixteenth Amendment. More importantly, in 1909 Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment, which would do away with the apportionment requirement of the Constitution if enacted. This amendment reads as follows:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.[11] {wiki}
Congress immediately enacted the first “constitutional” tax law, The Revenue Act of 1913. The tax ranged from 1% on income exceeding $3,000 to 7% on incomes exceeding $500,000. In effect, this statute introduced for the first time the notion of a progressive tax rate structure; the tax rate increases as the base, income in this case, increases. {wiki income tax history}
I was incorrect. Sort of. Got my facts mixed up. My appologies. Still 1% corperate and 1% -7% personal verses now...... :bs :?: hmmmmmm.