The Search for a Better Tax System In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes" (Tyson 6). Today, every American citizen who earns money in the United States knows the truth in this statement. However, federal taxation has not always been the complicated, intimidating, and paycheck draining process we have come to accept today. Prior to 1913 people lived and worked relatively free from the hassles of federal income taxes (Tyson 8). With the exception of the Civil War income tax, signed in by Abraham Lincoln in 1861 (abandoned ten years later), most of