Ivory marked by the Royal African Company. International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Wikimedia Commons.
The War Revenue Act of 1917 raised taxes on high incomes and on profits swollen by the war, and it still left most wage households outside the income tax.
A stretched household paid for the war at the grocery and in a bond drive, and usually never saw an income-tax bill.
A salaried household might owe a federal income tax for the first time, or might still fall under the exemption, and either way it was not the purse the Treasury was opening.
A household with a large income, or a firm earning more than a normal return on war work, faced steep rates and a tax on those extra profits.
The 1913 income tax had reached relatively high incomes only.
The wartime law lowered the line and taxed extraordinary business profits, so bonds would not be the only way the war was paid for.
Most families who lived on wages still owed nothing under the income tax, and met the war in prices instead.
War Revenue Act of 1917