Who Knew?

Why is April 15th Tax Day?

Federal Income Tax was introduced in 1861 to help fund the Civil War.   The Revenue Act of 1861 stipulates  that taxes would be due and paid on or before the 13th of June.  It has been claimed (yet never proven) that only the wealthy paid the first income tax, and that many vacationed during the Summer months.  The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is said to have argued  "The collection of taxes would be much easier if an earlier assessment was made, before they leave town."  And so they changed the due date to earlier in the Spring.

This sounds like a reasonable answer (and typical of a Government Official) but I believe this article submitted on Yahoo Answers might be a little bit closer to the truth:

"It is more likely that when Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment o the Constitution, which allows for the implementation of personal income tax, on February 3, 1913, and chose March 1 of the following year as the filing deadline. The deadline was changed to March 15 in 1918, and, as we learned at Tax History Project, to April 15 in 1955. Moving back the date from the end of the tax year served two purposes -- it gave the IRS more time to handle the work and, more importantly, more time to hang on to your money before issuing you a refund."  <-------My money's on this last reason....

WHO KNEW?