Question: Which president imposed the first federal income tax?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln, to help pay for the Union effort in the Civil War. Lincoln signed a bill in 1862 that imposed a 3% tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000 and a 5% tax on higher incomes. The law was repealed in 1872 and declared unconstitutional. That changed in 1913, when the 16th Amendment gave Congress constitutional authority to levy corporate and individual income taxes.
