Financing the American Civil War: Developing new tax sources

Abstract

The American Civil War was expected to be short and financed through additional borrowing. As Northern military setbacks mounted, it became obvious that the war would be long, bloody, and expensive. Annual federal budgets called for increased taxes to partially finance the rising costs. The Revenue Act of 1862 created innovative new tax sources and increased revenues dramatically. Tax innovations included the first federal income and inheritance taxes, the creation of the Office of Internal Revenue, and the use of adhesive revenue stamps. This article describes the political strategies and financial battles of the Civil War and postwar period, with particular focus on the Office of Internal Revenue and the introduction of new tax sources at the federal level. The major Civil War era innovation was the introduction of the federal income tax, including how to calculate taxable income and how tax collections were operationalized. The political and financial history of the income tax is a major focus of this article.

Accounting forAccounting History: A topic modeling approach (1996–2015)

“…The first topic in this set is ‘Taxation’ (topic 4). This topic is characterised by the co-occurrence of terms such as tax, income, federal and rate and refers to fiscal policies in different times, sectors and places – for example, the most coded article under this topic was taxation policy to fund the American Civil War (Giroux, 2012), just to mention the most coded article under this topic.…”

The profession of arms and the profession of accounting numbers – Accounting, the military and war: A review

“…Arnold (2014) and Billings and Oats (2014) each give prominence to profiteering and the attendant difficulties associated with defining normal and excessive profits with respect to the implementation of this tax. Earlier, during the American Civil War, the introduction for the first time by Union officials of Income Tax is the central tenet of Giroux (2012). Introduced to supplement extensive borrowings, Giroux (2012) reports the tax brought with it complexities that necessitated a series of administrative initiatives to manage collection.…”

“…Earlier, during the American Civil War, the introduction for the first time by Union officials of Income Tax is the central tenet of Giroux (2012). Introduced to supplement extensive borrowings, Giroux (2012) reports the tax brought with it complexities that necessitated a series of administrative initiatives to manage collection. The Excess Profit Duty in the United Kingdom during WW1 and Income Tax in the United States during the American Civil War demonstrate how accounting facilitated the introduction of fiscal initiatives thus contributing in a tangible way to the war effort.…”

The impact of gambling on rural communities worldwide: A narrative literature review.

“…Gambling may be viewed as a useful way of raising revenue by governments without directly introducing changes to individual tax rates (Walker & Jackson, 2011). A number of schemes have been introduced capitalizing on gambling revenue, usually in the form of lotteries (Bleakley & Ferrie, 2013; Giroux, 2012).…”