| 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 a | | | | 1894 was overturned by the Supreme Court ruling in |
| percentage of income). Such taxes were important | | | | the Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. case in 1895. |
| sources of revenue for many countries into the 19th | | | | In Pollock the Court held that income taxes on income |
| century, but this is no longer the case. There are | | | | from property, such as rent income, interest income, |
| several famous cases of poll taxes in history, notably | | | | and dividend income (but not income taxes on income |
| a tax formerly required for voting in parts of the United | | | | from wages, employment, etc.) were to be treated as |
| States that was often designed to disenfranchise | | | | direct taxes. Because the statute in question had not |
| African Americans, Native Americans, and whites of | | | | apportioned income taxes on income from property by |
| non-British descent, as well as two taxes levied by | | | | population, the statute was ruled unconstitutional. Finally, |
| John of Gaunt and Margaret Thatcher in the | | | | ratification 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 meant | | | | income 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 to | | | | The United States government does not levy |
| be used almost exclusively for a fixed tax applied to | | | | capitation taxes today. |
| voting. Since "going to the polls" is a common idiom for | | | | Tax on Voting |
| voting (deriving, of course, from the fact that early | | | | A poll tax, in the sense of a discriminatory tax which |
| voting involved head-counts), a new folk etymology | | | | was a pre-condition of the exercise of the right to |
| has supplanted common knowledge of the phrase's | | | | vote, 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 important | | | | was extended to all races by the enactment of the |
| role in the history of taxation in the United States and | | | | 15th Amendment, many Southern states enacted poll |
| the adoption of income tax as a significant source of | | | | tax laws which often included a grandfather clause |
| government funding. However, the second meaning of | | | | that allowed any adult male whose father or |
| poll tax, namely a tax on voting, is more widely known | | | | grandfather had voted in a specific year prior to the |
| in the US today. Recent debate surrounds whether | | | | abolition of slavery to vote without paying the tax. |
| citizen purchase of sometimes costly state id acts as | | | | These 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 Taxation | | | | as poor whites who immigrated after the year |
| The capitation clause of Article I of the United States | | | | specified. |
| Constitution, reads "[n]o capitation, or other direct, tax | | | | The United States government did not levy any poll |
| shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or | | | | taxes 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, fixed | | | | from income tax and excise taxes rather than from |
| amount per taxpayer. Direct tax means a tax levied | | | | capitation, which required apportionment among the |
| directly by the United States federal government on | | | | states[2]. Also, this is because the national government |
| taxpayers, as opposed to a tax on events or | | | | didn't conduct elections for its offices, instead |
| transactions. | | | | delegating conduct of elections to the states. |
| The United States government levied direct taxes | | | | The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, outlawed the |
| from time to time during the 18th and early 19th | | | | use of this tax (or any other tax) as a pre-condition in |
| centuries. It levied direct taxes on the owners of | | | | voting in Federal elections. The 1966 Supreme Court |
| houses, land, slaves, and estates in the late 1790's, but | | | | case 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, as | | | | interpretation of a more general provision, ruling that the |
| the amount of tax will vary from person to person | | | | imposition of a poll tax in state elections violated the |
| depending on each person's income. Until a United | | | | Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the |
| States Supreme Court decision in 1895, all income | | | | United 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 income | | | | 14th Amendment rather than the more direct provision |
| tax in the United States, to pay for the cost of the | | | | of the 15th.) |
| American Civil War. This income tax was abolished | | | | |