The amendment that enabled the income tax aspect associated with the Underwood Tariff Act was which?

The amendment that enabled the income tax aspect associated with the Underwood Tariff Act was which?

• A. Sixteenth Amendment
• B. Seventeenth Amendment
• C. Nineteenth Amendment
• D. Twenty-second Amendment

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is the constitutional authority for a federal income tax. The Underwood Tariff Act of 1913 lowered tariffs and included an income tax, but that tax could only be imposed if Congress had clear constitutional power to tax incomes. That power wasn’t fully settled until the Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, which explicitly allows Congress to lay and collect taxes on incomes without apportioning them among the states. This amendment removed the previous obstacle from Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., which had held that income taxes had to be apportioned among states. With the Sixteenth Amendment, the income tax component of the Underwood Tariff Act became constitutionally valid and enduring. The other amendments listed—one changing the method of choosing senators, another securing women's suffrage, and another limiting presidential terms—do not address taxation and thus don’t fit the question.

The main idea here is the constitutional authority for a federal income tax. The Underwood Tariff Act of 1913 lowered tariffs and included an income tax, but that tax could only be imposed if Congress had clear constitutional power to tax incomes. That power wasn’t fully settled until the Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, which explicitly allows Congress to lay and collect taxes on incomes without apportioning them among the states. This amendment removed the previous obstacle from Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., which had held that income taxes had to be apportioned among states. With the Sixteenth Amendment, the income tax component of the Underwood Tariff Act became constitutionally valid and enduring. The other amendments listed—one changing the method of choosing senators, another securing women's suffrage, and another limiting presidential terms—do not address taxation and thus don’t fit the question.