The Internal Revenue Service had been established in 1862, its sole purpose to fund the Civil War. The tax was a flat three percent on incomes over $800, which exempted most wage earners at the time, leaving the tax burden squarely upon the wealthy. Over time this was turned on its head as the agency focused on the average working stiff for their revenue gathering efforts. The IRS developed all kinds of mean and nasty little tricks they called Law, and very effectively plied those laws to extract money from innocent people of even the most meager incomes, leaving the richest of society every benefit those same taxes paid for.