Amendment XVI
Ratified: February 3, 1913
Summary
Allows the federal government to collect an income tax.
Full Text
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.
History and Context
This amendment was a product of the Progressive Era's populist revolt against the massive concentration of wealth in the hands of industrialists and financiers. In 1895, the Supreme Court, in *Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.*, had struck down a federal income tax, ruling it was a 'direct tax' that had to be apportioned among the states by population—a political and logistical impossibility. The Sixteenth Amendment was a direct counter-attack, explicitly granting Congress the power to tax incomes from any source, without apportionment. It fundamentally shifted the balance of financial power to the federal government and paved the way for the modern, activist state.