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New Tax Page

Online Resources

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Why Use Tax Records
By studying several consecutive years of tax records you may determine when a young men came of age, when individuals moved in and out of a home, or when they died leaving heirs. Authorities determined wealth (real estate, or income) to be taxed. Taxes can be for polls, real and personal estate, or schools.

Tax record content varies and may include the name and residence of the taxpayer, description of the real estate, name of original purchaser, description of personal property, number of males over 21, number of school children, slaves, and farm animals. Tax records usually are arranged by date and locality and are not normally indexed. Tax records can be used in place of missing land and census records to locate a person’s residence.

Tax Laws
Abraham Lincoln instituted the income tax in 1862, and on July 1, 1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act, creating the Bureau of Internal Revenue (later renamed to the Internal Revenue Service). This act was intended to “provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay interest on the Public Debt.” Instituted in the height of the Civil War, the “Public Debt” at the time primarily consisted of war expenses. For the Southern States that were part of the Confederate side of the Civil War, once Union troops took over parts of the Southern States, income tax were instituted on them.


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Introduction
Tax records are the result of taxation whereby civil authorities tax persons (usually heads of households) or property to acquire revenue for public purposes. The authorities determing the wealth (real estate, or income) that is to be taxed. There are different kinds of taxes: poll, personal, real estate, school and more.

You may learn more from the following article: United States Taxation.

Searching Tax Records
Tax records contain the names of individuals subject to the tax, the item or items taxed and the amount taxed. Sometimes heirs may be mentioned. The records are usually arrange chronologically. By studying several consecutive years of tax records you may determine when a young men came of age, when individuals moved in and out, or when they died, leaving heirs.

Repositories
There are county tax rolls, some dating as early as the 1820s. The county treasurer may have these records, or they may have been transferred to the area research center for the region (see the list of area research centers in Wisconsin Archives and Libraries).

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