Why is it important to pay federal taxes?

Why this is the answer

USCIS accepts four reasons: taxes are required by law, all people pay to fund the federal government, they are required by the Constitution through the 16th Amendment, and paying them is a civic duty. Any one is enough. The legal reason is the plainest. Everyone living in the United States, citizen or not, must pay income taxes, and the law requires a federal income tax form every year. The deadline is April 15. The constitutional reason has a long history behind it. The Constitution gave the federal government the power to collect taxes because it needs money to pay the nation’s debts and to defend and provide for the country. Raising that money was hard when the country was young and relied on the 13 original states. The first income tax came with the Revenue Act of 1861, and it was temporary. A flat-rate income tax passed in 1894 was struck down when the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. The lasting solution was a constitutional amendment: the 16th, ratified in 1913, gave Congress the power to tax incomes from whatever source derived, without having to apportion the tax among the states. That is why the official answer names it. The funding reason is easiest to explain with examples. According to the USCIS civics lessons, federal tax money keeps the country safe and secure, pays for research to cure and prevent diseases, helps educate children and adults, and builds and repairs roads and highways. If you pick the constitutional answer, get the number right. This section of the test is full of amendments, and the ones about voting sit close enough in memory to cause a slip. Pairing the 16th Amendment with April 15 as a single fact makes it easier to recall. If numbers make you nervous, “required by law” is three words and every bit as correct.