Former investment advisor Alexis Arlett receives a federal prison sentence of over four years for embezzling over $3 million in client funds, and for tax evasion that cost the U.S. Treasury nearly a million dollars. While working for an investment advisory firm, Arlett routinely submitted claims and received payment for fees that far exceeded the ones she was entitled to under contracts her clients had signed. To cover up her embezzlement, Arlett did not report her excess fee income to the IRS. Meanwhile, she told clients, whose account statements showed the discrepancy between the negotiated fees and the ones Arlett was claiming, that the statements had “billing and accounting errors” that she would investigate. She of course performed no such investigation, but it was these same statements that revealed the scam to IRS investigators.

The New York Times announces that John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Company, has become the nation’s first billionaire (the equivalent of over $26 billion in wealth today). It is estimated that at one time, Rockefeller’s assets amounted to as much as 3% of the entire U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). The question of how to properly tax such enormous fortunes was a source of ongoing political debate during Rockefeller’s era, and throughout the years since.

The British Sugar Act takes effect in the North American colonies. The Act replaces the poorly enforced Molasses Act of 1733, with much stricter reporting and verification requirements. At that, the Sugar Act effectively becomes the first law to directly impose a major tax payable to “the Crown” on American colonists. The new tax meets with considerable hostility, especially among colonial traders. It would be repealed just two years later, but in many ways, the damage would be done by then. The rallying cry of “no taxation without representation” spread throughout the colonies, ultimately fueling the American independence movement.

President Lyndon Johnson signs the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act into law, “to promote scholarship in the humanities and the arts in the United States.” Among other provisions, the law creates the National Endowment for the Arts, which offers funding for artistic endeavors. The program is part of Johnson’s Great Society initiative, which aims to improve quality of life for all Americans through federal government assistance and interventions. The cost of such programs, and the need to raise revenues to pay for them, reignites age-old debates about the proper role of government, and appropriate limits on taxation.

President George W. Bush signs the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004 into law. The law extends federal gasoline and diesel fuel excise taxes, which help to fund the ongoing expansion and improvement of the Interstate Highway System. An excise tax is a tax imposed on a specific commodity.

As fiscal year 1990 comes to a close, federal government revenues from all sources exceed $1 trillion for the first time in U.S. history. However, the government still runs a budget deficit for the year.

As fiscal year 1963 comes to a close, federal government revenues from all sources exceed $100 billion for the first time in U.S. history. However, the government still runs a budget deficit for the year.