Taxes were in place, long before the 16th ammendment. That supposed Wilson crap, was a formalization.
democrat president woodrow wilson of 1913, democrat president FDR of the 1930’s , democrat Obama , all huge socialist/marxist/communists
The most recent effort to tax incomes (Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894) had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because the tax on dividends, interest, and rents was not a direct tax apportioned by population. That obstacle, however, was removed by the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment on February 3, 1913,