...in March 1765 by the British Parliament. The purpose was to raise money for national debt of Britain after the Seven Years War and Parliament needed means to help fund expensive costs of keeping troops inside the colonies. The act levied a tax on legal documents, almanacs, newspapers, and nearly every other form of paper used in the colonies. The British Government felt that the colonies were the primary reason of the military presence and should pay a portion of the expense. The American colonies did not take kindly to this matter. Colonists all over greatly opposed the Stamp Act not only because of the taxes, but because it went against their principle no taxation without representation. Colonists started to fear that if the new tax were to pass without resistance, the door would be open for far more troublesome taxation in the future. Arguing that only their own representative assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional, and they soon resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. As a result, protests were all over the cities involving everyone from civic leaders to street mobs. The King and Parliament received many petitions and Americans were boycotting the British goods along with refusing to use the stamps for stamping documents. A man, Andrew Oliver, was appointed as the distributor of the stamps for Boston and entire colony of Massachusetts after the Stamp Act was enacted. An enraged crowd hung Oliver’s...
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...The United States imposes one of the highest federal corporate income taxes in the world, enticing corporations to outsource where more favorable tax rates lie. Will lowering this corporate tax rate help bring back those jobs to the U.S. and decrease the growing unemployment rate? Some argue yes, while other experts say no. While we argue both sides of this topic, the goal of this paper is to leave you, the reader, with enough facts to form your own opinions to the above question. How The Income Tax Came To Be In order to learn how the current corporate tax rates came to exist, we must first look at the history of the income tax. Although the Revenue Act of 1894 established the principle of taxing corporations separate from their owners, a federal tax on corporate income was never imposed until 1909. The Revenue Act levied a 2% income tax on any incomes totaling more than $4000 in order to make up the lost federal revenue (Dierdrich 2011). In the next year, the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the Act unconstitutional saying it was not allocated according to the population size of each state. How did Congress work around this? With the same principles in mind that lie within the Revenue Act of 1894, Congress passed the Corporation Excise Tax Act in 1909 (2013). Apart from its predecessor, this Act imposed a 1% tax on corporate income totaling more than $5000 (Tax Foundation 2013); however, it wasn’t until 1913 and the creation of the 16th amendment, which allows Congress to levy...
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...Alcohol Control Policies in Native American Communities Devyn Vazquez Nova Southeastern University The indigenous people of North America have settled in areas across the present day United States and continue to live on and off reservations throughout America’s fifty states. Throughout Native Americans longstanding history the significant battle with alcohol has not only tarnished the culture of numerous tribes and the public perception of American Indians, but alcohol use has ruined the lives of countless people. The introduction of alcohol in Native American societies began with English explorer Henry Hudson in the early 1600’s during the exploration of what is now considered the New York City metropolitan area. The brief encounter began as an attempt to thwart any possible mischievous plans of the Mohawk chief and continues to harm the Native American people (Morris 1880). As of 2010, the United States population contains 4.1 million individuals who identify themselves as having American Indian or Alaska Native heritage. Within this population, Native Americans are six times more likely to die from alcohol related causes, have a life expectancy rate six years lower than the national average, and report heavy alcohol use almost double the other ethnicities in America (American Psychiatric Association 2010). There is never a simple solution to the complex problem of alcohol within any ethnicity and this toxic relationship is ever present in many Native American...
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...When the United States bought the Philippines from the Spanish as a part of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War, few Americans knew the difficulties they would face in the islands’ administration. A Nationalist group under rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo had already set up a Filipino government in Manila, capital of the Philippines. Many Filipinos viewed the Americans as liberators, and were shocked and dismayed to learn that the Americans did not intend to recognize their new government. No sooner had the Americans exerted their sovereignty over the islands than they faced a dogged guerrilla war. On December 21, 1898, President William McKinley set the course for American policy in the Philippines. It was largely an attempt to set American Imperialism apart from the abusive European Imperialism which had led to the Spanish-American War. He announced the military occupation of the islands but also outlined a plan for the benevolent assimilation of the natives. As he proclaimed, “we come, not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends,” therefore, “it should be the…paramount aim of the military administration to win the confidence, respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines.” In practical terms, this meant building roads, schools, hospitals, introducing improved farming techniques, and preparing the Filipinos for the day when they are able to govern themselves. Using this policy of benevolent assimilation, the Americans were...
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...Magna Carta, was established in 1297 A.D., and is one of the most important legal democratic documents in world history. The Magna Carta, written to protect the rights and property of the Barons and Nobles of 13th century England. The livelihood and well-being of the common man or peasants was not taken into account when the nobles illustrated this historic document. According to U.S. National Records & Archives Administration (2007), “No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseized, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land” (p. 1). In this paper, I will be discussing the noble’s complaints concerning the Magna Carta, the noble’s interests compared to the king’s, and some interests that both the king and nobles agreed upon. One of the biggest complaints that the barons and nobles had about the Magna Carta was the increase in royal taxes. King John, was also increasing abusive commands when it came to the Royal Justice System. The barons and nobles wanted limited rights for the King, but oddly enough more rights for themselves. King John, frequently sold legal rights to the highest paying bidder and used the Royal Justice System to reward the people he held close and punish those people who disobeyed. The barons and nobles were looking for less taxation and less overall power held by the King. When it came to the barons and nobles of 13th century England, they...
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...6/30/10 The Issue of Taxes The viewpoint on taxes within American society stands to be both a controversial and bittersweet benefit among citizens of the nation. Although taxes help society sustain its stability in all aspects of finances in our economy as a whole; its inaccuracies often leave society members baffled. Paired with the concerns of the system of taxation are key virtues of the system as a whole. The confusion with the issue of income tax was acknowledged by Albert Einstein, a German born physicist, when he expressed that, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax”. Income tax serves to be a prominent piece of controversy and the primary source of why citizens question whether it’s effective and if there are any alternatives to supplement the process. Like all systems in our nation today, there reside both advantages and disadvantages in the way they are both perceived and carried out. Our national system of taxation secures our basic values and financial stability. For instance, our tax system helps the government as well as protecting the low-class individuals from high taxes. It even tries to have an effective way as they say “distributing the wealth”. Our nations system also helps to protect citizens during time of recession, allowing them to fall into the lower income bracket if their income happens to drop. It also enables a steady income within our government when times of depression become apparent. However, it comes inevitable...
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...The Case for Fair Tax Reform The current economic situation of the United States can be blamed on a multitude of variables and is the fault of numerous politicians from both parties as well as an abundance of special interest groups with lobbying power, not to mention several Presidential administrations. This paper will not examine all of these variables or individuals; it will concentrate on the isolated issue of tax reform on the highest earners and how it negatively affects the federal deficit and income inequality inside of the United States. What this paper will prove is that if the United States does not raise taxes on the highest earners, history shows that the divide between rich and poor as well as the divide between surplus and deficit will only widen into the future. When President Ronald Reagan shrank the tax brackets in 1987, it was the beginning of a new economic era. The theory behind cutting taxes on the richest people was that with extra money, the most profitable companies and taxpayers would invest their extra capital into the market and in the process create more jobs, expanding the economy. This may not have been the catalyst for the service economy revolution but it certainly coincided with it. A significant amount of opportunity cost was invested into foreign markets creating a cheaper workforce abroad, while domestically shrinking the labor market. According to MIT professor James Poterba, income inequality began to increase after the 1986 tax...
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...government-funded programs. Taxes affect every person, business, and property. This environment of constant change is a challenge for most accountants or anyone for that matter. This paper seeks to explore the history of the Federal Income Tax System, the Internal Revenue Code, the Internal Revenue Service, and guidelines and improvement of the tax system. History of Taxation in the United States The history of taxation in the United States commenced when the British, French and Spanish Empires ruled the individual colonies established in the US. This was back in the 1790’s after World War I. After their independence from Europe, the taxation system continued by collection of poll taxes, tariffs, and excise taxes. There were various acts passed by parliament which imposed taxation of various items such as lead, paper, paint, glass, stamps, sugar, and tea as a means of tax collection. From these come the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, and the Townshend Revenue Act. The Boston Tea Party was the insurgency against the British colonists by the American colonists to not pay the tea tax levied upon them. Federal Government Income Tax History The taxation system in the United States is governed by different levels of government. There are different methods of taxation as well. The tariffs imposed were the largest source of federal revenue from 1790 to the eve of World War I. This was the largest source of income until the collection of income taxes. Congress adopted federal...
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...Competitive Strategies and Government Policies Competition and policy changes are something that every company likely has to face in their existence. Finding the balance between staying profitable while constantly adapting to the changing economic and customer driven demand environment will be the key to the expansion of the craft brew business. New Companies and Mergers The idea of new competition is the boost to get the current company to step their game up. DogHead Fish Brewery is successful and growing steadily. The rapid emergence of nano-breweries has redefined the standards of craft beer. Good just doesn’t cut it anymore. It has to be bold, smoky, spicy, “hoppy,” citrusy, sour, fruity, one-of-a kind and more. If you just want to drink good beer, you are in for a treat. Are these many breweries sustainable in the long run? The research has shown that craft breweries are growing in record numbers. The market is ripe for it. The consumer base is also expanded beyond the college student to the beer drinking connoisseur. In recent years, craft brewers have sounded an alarm over the clout of Anheuser-Busch Inbev and MillerCoors, who today control 90 percent of the beer market. Craft brewers hold just 6 percent, but the market share is growing (Hieronymus, 2010). "Their preferred business model is an oligopoly," says Koch of the company that was once interwoven with his family. "I don't see them as trying to deliberately set out to destroy us. But we are very potentially...
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...the conclusions of these revolts certainly have one thing in common, that is change. As seen in the American and French Revolutions, citizens dealt and suffered unjust rule, taxation, and social isolation. These two rebellions took place in the same era and are generally grouped together by scholars, even many who would argue that one influenced the other. Under closer examination, while many comparisons can be made, many profound contrasts can be distinguished. This essay will review main occurrences in these two historical events, focusing on the comparisons and contrasts of factors such as causes, goals, and outcomes of both the American and French Revolutions. Both the American Revolution and the French Revolution were born of dire economic conditions. While this similarity is true, each country had their own separate financial issues that led to each respective rebellion. The roots of the American Revolution stemmed from the taxation upon the Colonists by the monarchy of the British. Taxes were not something that citizens of the new world were unfamiliar to, but the issue was more vested in just reasoning behind the increased taxes on the Colonies, this idea birthed a familiar phrase of the revolution, “taxation without representation”. The French Revolution, while also derived from unjust taxation, was more predicated on the division of social classes, known as the Feudal system. This system separated the population into three classes, or “estates”, where ninety-eight...
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...Taxation is said to be one of the key governance tools of any state including the upholding of Zambians sovereignty. INTRODUCTION The most fundamental function of taxation is raising revenue to pay for governmental expenses and programs. "Taxes are necessary to raise revenue for public goods and infrastructure, as well as to provide other sorts of public services conducive to general welfare and economic growth." Tax revenues pay for the necessary goods – like national defense or a legal system – that an unregulated market cannot provide by itself. More often overlooked is the role of taxation as a catalyst for the development of responsive and accountable government, and for the expansion of state capacity. Taxes, however, do more than simply raise revenue: "Any tax that produces revenue will in some way alter the social and economic order." Taxes that only raise revenue without effecting other changes do not exist in the real world. The concept of fiscal policy captures that link between revenue collection and government spending. More specifically, taxes can be used to increase or decrease inflation and purchasing power, stimulate investment, and prevent harmful concentrations of wealth. Taxation is an underrated tool in the effort to build more capable and responsive states. The role of taxation as a central force in the development of democracy resonates strongly in Anglo-American history. The duty of paying for government legitimizes demands for services...
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...A most important Civil Rights lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle was filed in U. S. Federal District Court in Montgomery, Alabama on February 1, 1956. This case is virtually unknown and in name not mentioned in the Civil Rights discussion. Instead, the gains realized through the success of this case are generally attributed to other factions and individuals or events, such as Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin L. King Jr., Rosa L. Parks, and Ed Nixon. To grasp the relevance of Browder v. Gayle to American History as it relates to Civil Rights, one must first understand the preceding history relative to the Civil Rights struggle. To enter that discussion one must recognize the changes made in American society, dictated by prevailing laws made by the laws of the land, which involved the U. S. Constitution and the courts, which interpreted...
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...Tax Law and Accounting Craig ACC 483 June 21, 2010 Jeff Hough Modern taxation comes from a long history of changes in the United States beginning with the Revenue Act of 1861 that was designed to assist with funding the Civil War. This tax was repealed 10 years later. “In 1894 Congress enacted a flat rate federal income tax, which was ruled unconstitutional the following year by the U.S. Supreme Court because it was a direct tax not apportioned according to the population of each state” (Terrell, 2009, History of Tax Law, para. 2). In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment enacted modern day federal income tax in the United States. Before 1913, the federal government relied on customs duties and excise taxes as its source of income. As America developed the U.S. government needed additional income to sustain its operations. The Sixteenth Amendment consisted of just one sentence: “The Congress shall have the 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” (Pope, Anderson, & Kramer, 2010, p. 1-3). The implementation of income tax remains one of the most remarkable institutions created in this era. Modern Income Tax Statutes The primary objective of modern tax statutes is to generate revenue to sustain governmental operations. The largest source of federal revenues is individual income taxes. Other sources come from corporate income taxes and Social...
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...Assignment 5: Persuasive Paper Part 3: Possible Disadvantages, Answers, with Visuals Strayer University August 31, 2014 The topic of taxation is a very controversial subject. Due to its complexity, people from the left to the right have objected to it. There was a time when the federal government was funded only with revenue from imported products. A little bit of history informs us that income tax started in 1861 with the Civil War, when congress passed a bill required everyone to pay three percent of their income starting at $600 to $10,000 each year (Boortz & Linder, 2005). Since the end of Civil War, the battle began to get rid of the income tax. The truth is that the tax takes money off our pockets. But, I proposed that tax increase on income $ 250,000.00 or more per year because that will decrease taxation on the lower income levels, and increase revenue to the government to fight budget and reduce the national debt. As stated above, income tax was a battle in 1896 and continues to be a battle in 2012. The Sixteenth Amendment of the US Constitution was born to collect revenue from American workers, and that was a fight between Democrats and Republican over income taxation. Due to a 2% tax in 1894, the two major political parties took the fight all the way to the US Supreme Court with a question about the constitutionality of that law. The Supreme Court ruled that the income tax was unconstitutional. As a response to that ruling, Joseph Bailey a democratic senator...
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...they had the right to the Ohio River Valley. This caused Britain to tax the colonist and place restrictions that led to the American Revolution. The American Revolution gave the colonies their freedom from British rule and the ability to form their nation and laws. Great Britain never respected the United States as a sovereign nation. Due to the conflict with France both France and Britain restricted U.S. imports because of the belief that the U.S. was supplying the enemy. The embargoes on American shipments along with the Native American attacks on colonist caused the War of 1812. The greatest accomplishment of the War of 1812 was the era of good feelings. Cause and Outcome of War 1754-1815 The cause and outcome of the French and Indian War, American Revolution, and the War of 1812 had many similarities. The wars started with the French and Indian war that was fought over the Ohio River Valley, which began in 1754 ending with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The American Revolutionary War was fought over the colonist not given the same rights as Englishmen along with the taxation of the colonist that began 1775 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The War of 1812 was fought because of the restriction placed on imports and expansion that started in 1812 and ended with the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. The French and Indian War and the War of 1812 were caused by expansion and the dispute between the French and Britain. The French and Indian war along with the War of...
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