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Happy Birthday: Federal Income Tax Turns 100

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm David Greene.

If you weren't finished with your taxes, you may have been buried in paperwork over the weekend. Not true for last-minute filers a century ago. While this year's 1040 tax form has 214 pages of instructions, in 1913 it was just one page. There was a section for how farmers should claim livestock including animal wool and hides. There was a line for losses sustained in firestorm or shipwreck. But sorry, the family account at the country store was not deductible.

It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.