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Taxation page for Indiana

Online Resources

 * 1862-1874 Images only.

Why Use Tax Records
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.

County Level
Tax lists are often used as substitutes for missing census records. In Indiana, few lists survive from before 1843 when a record called the Tax Duplicate was required to be kept. These records are maintained by the county treasurer. The records are arranged by taxing unit, usually by township, town or city, then grouped, generally, alphabetically by last name. The lists mention the person assessed for poll tax, the number of acres owned, the location of the land, the worth of chattels (property other than real estate), and the amount of the taxes. Some or all of these tax duplicates survive, but are usually in storage and are hard to access.

Tax Laws
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.


 * To learn more about this Collection click here

Abraham Lincoln instituted the income tax in In July of 1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act to provide income for the Government to pay the public debt including Civil War costs. 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.
 * To learn more about the Civil War taxes click here