Income tax in the United States or property "per se." What seemed to be a straightforward limitation on the power of the legislature based on the subject of the tax proved inexact and unclear when applied to an income tax, which can be arguably viewed either as a direct or an indirect tax. The first income tax suggested in the United States was during the War of 1812. The idea for the tax was based on the British Tax Act of 1798. The British tax law applied progressive rates to income. The British tax rates ranged from 0.833% on income starting at £60 to 10% on
Hall income tax and 1960, the court rejected proposals for a general personal income tax. However, in 1981, 1991, and 1999, three different Tennessee Attorneys General issued opinions that a general income tax would not violate the state constitution. In December 2004, a commission established to study the state's tax structure said the Hall income tax was regressive, anti-competitive, and "unfairly selective." However, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) said the Hall Tax is actually the only major progressive tax levied in Tennessee—amounting to 0.4 percent of income for high-income taxpayers compared to 0.0–0.1 percent for less affluent Tennesseans. The Tennessee