Legal history of income tax in the United States adopted an income tax modeled on the tax instituted in England. The British theory was that you tax the income from property, and not the property itself; thus, sales of property were not subject to taxation. In order to help pay for its war effort in the American Civil War, the United States government imposed its first personal income tax, on August 5, 1861, as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. Tax rates were 3% on income exceeding $600 and less than $10,000, and 5% on income exceeding $10,000. This tax was repealed and replaced by another income tax
IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is an initiative sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service. Founded in 1971 by Gary Iskowitz at California State University, Northridge. Since the 1970s the program has blossomed to several thousand sites nationwide partnering with non-profit organizations, city governments, and major public universities to file millions of returns every year. In Tax Year 2015 3.7 million returns were filed with a 94% accuracy rate according to Frank Nolden, Director of Stakeholder Partnerships, Education, and Communication/SPEC. The program is intended to service low to moderate-income tax payers, which the