<P> Under Article VIII of the Articles of Confederation, the United States government did not have the power to tax . All such power lay with the states . The United States Constitution, adopted in 1787, authorized the federal government to lay and collect taxes, but required that some types of tax revenues be given to the states in proportion to population . Tariffs were the principal federal tax through the 1800s . </P> <P> By 1796, state and local governments in fourteen of the 15 states taxed land . Delaware taxed the income from property . The War of 1812 required a federal sales tax on specific luxury items due to its costs . However, internal taxes were dropped in 1817 in favor of import tariffs that went to the federal government . By the American Civil War, the principle of taxation of property at a uniform rate had developed, and many of the states relied on property taxes as a major source of revenue . However, the increasing importance of intangible property, such as corporate stock, caused the states to shift to other forms of taxation in the 1900s . </P> <P> Income taxes in the form of "faculty" taxes were imposed by the colonies . These combined income and property tax characteristics, and the income element persisted after 1776 in a few states . Several states adopted income taxes in 1837 . Wisconsin adopted a corporate and individual income tax in 1911, and was the first to administer the tax with a state tax administration . </P> <P> The first federal income tax was adopted as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 . The tax lapsed after the American Civil War . Subsequently enacted income taxes were held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. because they did not apportion taxes on property by state population . In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, permitting the federal government to levy an income tax on both property and labor . </P>

Who pays the taxes in the united states