Today’s American Minute

Withholding taxes from people’s paychecks began this day, June 9, 1943. Congress passed it as an emergency measure to get money to fight Hitler. The idea came from Beardsley Ruml, treasurer of Macy’s and chairman of New York’s Federal Reserve Bank. He called it the “pay-as-you-go” tax. So much money came in with so few complaints that it was continued after the war. But Americans weren’t always taxed. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson wrote: “Through the favor of … Providence our country is blessed with … prosperity and our citizens exempted from the pressure of taxation.”

Bill Federer

William J. Federer is the author of "Change to Chains: The 6,000 Year Quest for Global Control" and "What Every American Needs to Know About the Quran: A History of Islam and the United States." Read more of Bill Federer's articles here.