Today, August 4, marks the 230th birthday of one of the oldest tax enforcement agencies in the United States. Started when our country was in its infancy to provide revenue for our new nation, this still-operating body celebrates its noble birth today. So, what is this group? The IRS? No. The IRS is not nearly 230 years old. So, who then?
The United States Revenue Cutter service, now known as the Coast Guard, celebrates its birthday today. Started by Alexander Hamilton on August 4, 1790, to help collect tariffs, one of our country’s main sources of revenue in the long, long time before we established an income tax, the Coast Guard was under the authority of the Department of the Treasury until as recently as 1967. Income taxes, which require an army of revenue officers to verify income and hunt down those who won’t pay, are relatively new. Tariffs, on the other hand, which require a fleet of boats to make sure that smugglers are not bringing in untaxed goods, predate income taxes in the United States by more than a century, and the Coast Guard, the original enforcer of these taxes, is equally old.
So, live it up, Coast Guard. At 230, you earned it.
