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--- Tax Page

Online Resources

 * 1862-1874 |U.S., Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874 at FamilySearch.org. Images only.


 * 1862-1874 Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874 at Ancestry (Free /$)

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
Examples of the kind of tax records you might find are: land taxes, poor taxes, school taxes, and county road taxes. Also included at the county level are assessors’ books, railroad tax books, collectors’ books, taxable land lists, delinquent taxes, and road tax books.

The Family History Library has 66 microfilms of tax rolls for 43 counties from as early as 1839 and as late as 1891 for some counties. (Family History Library films ..

But copies of these microfilms are also available from the State Archives of Florida. The archives also has manuscript tax records.

State Level
Tax lists in Florida can be an important supplement to early census and land records. After Florida became a state, tax records of various kinds were kept in the counties and towns.

Tax Laws
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. After the Civil War, taxes were abolished until only a tax on liquor and tobacco remained in 1883. An 1895 Supreme Court ruling declared that income tax was unconstitutional and led to the ratification of the sixteenth amendment in 1913 which states that Congress has the power to establish and collect taxes on incomes. This was the beginning of our modern day taxes.

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