This paper discusses authority granted to Congress over imposing federal taxes in gener-al, and income tax in specific. The author used the critical analytical method to analyze the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Income Tax Law, and the U.S. Constitu-tion, to reach the policy followed by the court in ruling on the constitutionality of legal provisions related to the constitutionality of such tax legislations. The importance of this article comes in that it is one of the few studies that analyzed and criticized the policy of the U.S. Supreme Court in its ruling on the constitutionality of tax federal legislations. The author explains the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in identifying what is considered as income in some gray areas that the U.S. tax code (26 U.S. Code of 1986) did not pro-vide an answer for, or petitioners claimed that such income does not fall in gross income inclusions.  In  addition,  the  author  explains  the  philosophy  behind  granting  Congress  such  power,  and  the  effects  of  such  authority.  Although  the  author  believes  that  many  amendments  to  the  tax  code  has  political  backgrounds  rather  than  economic,  granting  this power to Congress would be less arbitrary compared to the political scenarios that could appear if it granted to the Executive Branch. At last, the author discusses the con-stitutional limits on congressional power of taxing and how these limits would affect tax legislations that Congress was trying to pass, considering people’s right of equity in tax treatment under Uniformity Clause.

Title

International Review of Law

Publisher

Qatar University Press

Publisher Country

Qatar

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

13

Year

2024

Pages

225-244