In honor of Tax Day

To commemorate this special day, I thought I would share with you a copy of a 1040A tax form. Not mine - my fathers.

Here is his return for 1940. You'll have to double-click on it to see the details. The family was living in Fort Stockton Texas at that time; my sister and brother were 11 and 8 years of age, and I was a few months away from becoming another deduction. My father earned $2,041.83 from Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1940 (quite an increase from his $80 a month starting salary in 1928). The "Great Depression" had come and gone, but another significant recession began in 1937 and there were still millions of unemployed during this time. It was good to have a steady job.

Several things catch my attention: line 3 indicates that this was the first year my father filed a tax return. The Income Tax as we know it had been around since 1913, but historically it affected fewer than 10% of the population. I'm guessing this was the first year he fell under its shadow, but he still did not make enough money to have to pay taxes.

Secondly, this document is titled "Individual Income and Defense Tax Return." War was raging in Europe and the US was soon to join in. While the Income Tax was at the astounding rate of 4%, line 21 tacked on another 10% of that amount for a Defense tax.

The other thing I noticed is the $110 deduction. Turn the form over and you will see that it was to the Church of Christ in Fort Stockton. Of course it was.


I hope your tax return was as easy and inexpensive as this one was. Happy Tax Day!