What is the 16th Amendment?

The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1913. This amendment gave Congress the power to impose a federal income tax without apportioning it among the states on the basis of population. The exact text of the 16th Amendment is:

"The Congress shall have 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."

Prior to the 16th Amendment, taxes on income were considered indirect taxes and had to be apportioned to ensure that a state with a smaller population did not pay the same total amount of tax as a state with a larger population. But this method made it difficult to implement a nationwide income tax because it did not reflect individual citizens' ability to pay.

The 16th Amendment overcame this obstacle by allowing the federal government to tax incomes directly, without any consideration for the census or state populations. This led to the modern federal income tax system that the United States has today.