Edmund Barton Quotes
We ought not to cripple them [the Australian States] using our power of direct taxation, unless under the stress of some great emergency; we ought to leave them free to enlarge their revenues by direct taxation [income and property taxes], seeing that they will have no power to resort to customs or excise duties if they want additional revenue.
Edmund Barton, 1849-1920, First Federal Prime Minister of Australia, Quoted in Steve Gibson, “A Short History of Taxation in Australia,” Australian Marxist Review No. 41, November 1999
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This Supreme Court opinion nullified the attempt to have a Federal Income Tax. The constitution allowed the Federal Government to collect import duties and that was essentially the only revenue source for the national government for over a century. If free trade were an objective, then customs duties would be lowered or eliminated and the Federal Govern lost the revenue. The only kind of direct tax that was allowed was a head tax in which every American paid the same tax. This was not a “flat tax” which means a tax where each person pays the same PERCENTAGE of income as tax. This meant that the richest person in the nation could only pay what the poorest could afford and therefore was impractical. It would take a constitutional amendment 18 years later—the 16th Amendment—to make the income tax legal. Many extremist anti-Federal government have refused to pay their income taxes and they argue that “The Supreme Court has declared the Income Tax illegal.” While that is so, after the 16th Amendment, the Court agreed that it was now constitutional. So the implication of unconstitutionality of the Federal Income Tax that the anti-tax forces have used was the law but has not been so since 1913. After that, it was and is perfectly legal and constitutional.
Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton, GCMG, KC was an Australian politician and judge who served as the first Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1901 to 1903. He resigned to become a founding member of the High Court of Australia, where he served until his death.
