The Revenue Act of 1942

In 1939 only about five percent of American workers paid income tax. The United States' involvement in World War II changed that figure. The demands of war production put almost every American back to work, but the war's cost still exceeded tax revenue. President Roosevelt's Victory Tax (as the Revenue Act of 1942 came to be known) levied progressive taxes on nearly 75 percent of American workers. To ease workers' burden of paying a large sum once a year, and to create a regular flow of revenue into the U.S. Treasury, the government required employers to withhold money from employees' paychecks.For a deeper look into the law, visit http://www.constitution.org/tax/us-ic/hist/victorytax.htm.