We Changed The Constitution To Share The Income Tax Burden

Did you know that the Constitution as adopted by the Founding Fathers did not allow the imposition of an income tax on interest, dividends, rents and capital gains (however, a tax on wages was not similarly prohibited by the Constitution).  The United States Supreme Court confirmed this "no-tax" feature of the Constitution in 1895 (Pollock, 157 U.S. 429).  Eighteen years thereafter, the Sixteenth Amendment (adopted in 1913) removed the prohibition against taxing income derived from property (stocks, bonds, real estate and other investments).  The amendment ensured that the wealthy, living on the income from property and investments, would share the income tax burden with wage earners.