Poll tax

A poll tax, soul tax, or capitation is a tax of a uniform,after the war, in 1872. Another income tax statute in
fixed amount per individual (as opposed to a1894 was overturned by the Supreme Court ruling in
percentage of income). Such taxes were importantthe Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. case in 1895.
sources of revenue for many countries into the 19thIn Pollock the Court held that income taxes on income
century, but this is no longer the case. There arefrom property, such as rent income, interest income,
several famous cases of poll taxes in history, notablyand dividend income (but not income taxes on income
a tax formerly required for voting in parts of the Unitedfrom wages, employment, etc.) were to be treated as
States that was often designed to disenfranchisedirect taxes. Because the statute in question had not
African Americans, Native Americans, and whites ofapportioned income taxes on income from property by
non-British descent, as well as two taxes levied bypopulation, the statute was ruled unconstitutional. Finally,
John of Gaunt and Margaret Thatcher in theratification of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United
fourteenth and twentieth centuries respectively.States Constitution in 1913 made possible modern
The word poll is an English word that once meantincome taxes, by removing the requirement of
"head", hence the name poll tax for a per-person tax.apportionment with respect to income taxes.
However, in the United States, the term has come toThe United States government does not levy
be used almost exclusively for a fixed tax applied tocapitation taxes today.
voting. Since "going to the polls" is a common idiom forTax on Voting
voting (deriving, of course, from the fact that earlyA poll tax, in the sense of a discriminatory tax which
voting involved head-counts), a new folk etymologywas a pre-condition of the exercise of the right to
has supplanted common knowledge of the phrase'svote, emerged in some US states between the
true origins in America.mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. After the right to vote
A poll tax in the sense of capitation plays an importantwas extended to all races by the enactment of the
role in the history of taxation in the United States and15th Amendment, many Southern states enacted poll
the adoption of income tax as a significant source oftax laws which often included a grandfather clause
government funding. However, the second meaning ofthat allowed any adult male whose father or
poll tax, namely a tax on voting, is more widely knowngrandfather had voted in a specific year prior to the
in the US today. Recent debate surrounds whetherabolition of slavery to vote without paying the tax.
citizen purchase of sometimes costly state id acts asThese laws achieved the desired effect of
a poll tax, keeping poor voters out of elections.disenfranchising African and Native Americans, as well
Capitation and Federal Taxationas poor whites who immigrated after the year
The capitation clause of Article I of the United Statesspecified.
Constitution, reads "[n]o capitation, or other direct, taxThe United States government did not levy any poll
shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census ortaxes that blocked access to voting rights. Partly this is
enumeration herein before directed to be taken."because the national government earned its revenues
Capitation here means a tax of a uniform, fixedfrom income tax and excise taxes rather than from
amount per taxpayer. Direct tax means a tax leviedcapitation, which required apportionment among the
directly by the United States federal government onstates[2]. Also, this is because the national government
taxpayers, as opposed to a tax on events ordidn't conduct elections for its offices, instead
transactions.delegating conduct of elections to the states.
The United States government levied direct taxesThe 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, outlawed the
from time to time during the 18th and early 19thuse of this tax (or any other tax) as a pre-condition in
centuries. It levied direct taxes on the owners ofvoting in Federal elections. The 1966 Supreme Court
houses, land, slaves, and estates in the late 1790's, butcase Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections extended
cancelled the taxes in 1802.this explicit enactment as a matter of judicial
An income tax is neither a poll tax nor a capitation, asinterpretation of a more general provision, ruling that the
the amount of tax will vary from person to personimposition of a poll tax in state elections violated the
depending on each person's income. Until a UnitedEqual Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the
States Supreme Court decision in 1895, all incomeUnited States Constitution. (This is one of several
taxes were deemed to be excises (indirect taxes).rulings that rely on the Equal Protection Clause of the
The Revenue Act of 1861 established the first income14th Amendment rather than the more direct provision
tax in the United States, to pay for the cost of theof the 15th.)
American Civil War. This income tax was abolished