“Wages”

The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, p. 675, 1776; SOURCE: https://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf

EDITORIAL: Smith deplored capitations as inequitable, inflationary, counterproductive, and destructive of liberty. Smith 5 times calls a tax on wages a direct tax in three pages of Book V

This would definitely have been in the mind of the framers when they wrote the constitution. Clearly, the founders went out of their way to make it a pain in the ass for Congress to enact any direct tax, thus insuring it would only be used in case of emergency.

The U.S. Supreme Court cites from Smith’s book in Hylton v. United States, 3 U.S. 171 (1796) case, a very early case involving the question of what is a direct tax vs. what is indirect.

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USA Constitution, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4. Taxes;
SOURCE: https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-1/

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

[USA Constitution, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4. Taxes; SOURCE: https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-1/]

EDITORIAL: Thus by “capitations”— which are definitely direct taxes, the framers had in mind any tax on wages from labor. The income tax cannot tax labor, which is property. To do so would be a direct capitation tax forbidden by Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4 above. Such a tax would have to be aportioned.