Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for Alabama
1865-1866
Well, I was told there was not such a thing as Internal Revenue Income tax or property tax during the Civil War. I have the microfilm that says differently. I will begin to transcribe this film. If you have any information to add to this list contact me.
Microcopy No. 754 National Archives Microfilm Publications
Roll 1
District 1
Division 1-21
Annual, Monthly and Special Lists
March-July 1866
On the 6 rolls of this microfilm publication are reproduced bound volumes of tax assessment for the three collection districts established for the State of Alabama by Executive order dated May 18, 1865. These lists were created in the offices of assessors and assistant assessors of Internal Revenue during the period 1865-1866.
The Internal Revenue Act of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat.432) was intended "to provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay "Interest on the Public Debt.". Monthly specific and ad valorem duties were placed on manufacturers, articles, and products ranging from ale to zinc. Monthly taxes were levied on the gross receipts of transportation companies; on interest paid on bonds; on surplus funds accumulated by financial institutions and insurance companies; on gross receipts from auction sales; and on sales of slaughtered cattle, hogs and sheep. Gross receipts from newspaper advertisements were subject to a quarterly tax. Annual licenses were required for all trades and occupations, and annual duties were placed on carriages, yachts, billiard tables, and gold and silver plate.
An annual tax was also levied on all income in excess of $600.00, and legacies and distributive shares of personal property were made taxable. Stamp duties were imposed on legal and business documents and on medical preparations, playing cards, perfumery and cosmetics.
The act also authorized the establishment of the office of commissioner of Internal Revenue in the Treasury Department to superintend the collection of taxes and duties and to prepare the regulations, instruction, directions, and forms used in assessing and collecting taxes.
The President of the United States was authorized by the act to divide, by Executive order, all the States and Territories into collection districts, and the number of districts was not to exceed the number of Congressional Representatives from each State of Territory. The President also appointed an assessor and collector for each district. The assessor then divided his district into divisions and assigned one assistant assessor for reach division. The collectors appointed deputies, who had the authority to levy taxes and duties.
All persons, partnerships, firms, associations, or corporations submitted to the assistant assessor for their division a list showing the amount of annual income, articles subject to the special tax or duty, and the quantity of goods made or sold that were to be charged with a specific or ad valorem tax or duty. The assistant assessors collected these lists and complied two general lists, each in alphabetical order: (1) a list of names of all persons residing in the division who were liable for taxation and (2) al list of names of all persons residing outside the division who were owners of property in the division; and under each person's name, the value, assessment, or enumeration of taxable income or items and the amount of duty or tax due. These lists were delivered to the assessor concerned, who examined them in detail corrected any errors, and approved them. The assessor then advertised the name of the place where the lists could be reviewed. Appeals were heard for 15 days. After the examination and appeal, the assessor compiled lists of the sums due from each division in his district. He supplied copies of theses lists to the collector who then gave notice that taxes were due and collected them.
The effective date for the taxes to be levied was set by the Secretary of the Treasury as Sept. 1, 1862. Because of the lack of adequate definitions in the act, the complexity of the tax schedules, and the variations in assessment dates, some of the annual duties were not levied until the following May. By May 1863 a high degree of uniformity in detailed instructions, regulations, decisions, and forms had been developed. Individual assistant assessors, however, continued to use forms for purposes other than those for which they were intended, and the enumerate and assess taxable property in the manner they considered most convenient.
The original Internal Revenue Act was significantly modified by amendment dated March 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 713), and by the Internal Revenue Act of June 30, 1864 (13 Stat. 223). Congress, by a joint resolution dated July 4, 1864 (13 Stat 417), levied a special income tax, which was to be assessed separately from the exiting income tax.
An act of Congress approved on Dec. 24, 1872 (17 Stat. 401), abolished the offices of assessors and assistant assessors eff. July 1, 1873. On May 20, 1873, these offices were closed and the assessment lists were shipped to the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Washington, D. C.
The assessment lists were divided into three basic categories: annual, monthly and special. The entries in the annual and monthly lists are for the taxes assessed or collected in those specific periods. The special lists augment the incomplete tax annual and monthly lists. They also include the taxes that were labeled by the assessors s "special"' for example, the special income tax of October 1864.
The lists are arranged by collection district and thereunder by division. They are filmed in the order in which they are bound in the volumes. There are 2 rolls of film for each district, and the same county names are on both rolls. An index that lists the county names within each collection district is filmed after these introductory remarks.
These records are part of Record Group 58, Records of the Internal Revenue Service, in the National Archives. Assessment lists for the years 1867-73 are also in the same record group. Instruction, circulars, and correspondence relating to the levying of assessments and to the collection of taxes are in the same record group and also in Record Group 56, General Records of the Department of the Treasury. correspondence concerning the settlement of collectors accounts is in Record Group 217, Records of the United States General Accounting Office.
Summary statistical tables of receipts under the Internal Revenue Act and its amendments are published in the Annual Reports of the commissioner of Internal Revenue for the years from 1863-1867
The records reproduced in this microcopy were prepared for filming by John Fawcett, who also wrote the introductory remarks and provided the other editorial material.
