As our members practicing in tax look forward to the upcoming deadline, I thought it would be interesting to look back at what was happening in the world of U.S. Federal Tax back in the first year of the association. On November 9, 1978, President Carter signed the Revenue Act of 1978. The following changes came from the Archives of the New York Times.
The minimum income for which a return must be filed increased to $3,300 for single and head-of-household filers and to $5,400 for a married couple under age 65 filing a joint return.
Formerly known as the standard deduction, it was increased from $2,200 to $2,300 for single taxpayers and heads of households and from $3,200 to $3,400 for married couples.
The act reduced the table of 25 income brackets to 15 (16 for single persons). The brackets have been widened to achieve this simplification. Rates continued to range from 14 to 70 per cent.
