Internal Revenue Code of 1986

1) Link to the Text of the Act
Read the statute (26 U.S.C.)

2) Why It Was Done
The Internal Revenue Code of 1986 was enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, a major overhaul of the U.S. tax system. It simplified tax brackets, broadened the base, and closed loopholes while lowering overall rates.

3) Pre-existing Law or Constitutional Rights
Federal income tax authority comes from the 16th Amendment (1913). Prior versions of the tax code existed (notably the Internal Revenue Code of 1954), but the 1986 reform modernized it.

Moore v. United States (2024)

1) Link to the Actual Opinion
Read the Supreme Court opinion (PDF)

2) Summary of the Opinion
The Moores challenged the Mandatory Repatriation Tax (MRT) in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which attributed certain accumulated, undistributed earnings of a controlled foreign corporation (CFC) to its U.S. shareholders and taxed them once. The Supreme Court upheld the MRT, holding that Congress may tax a shareholder on a pass-through basis for a business entity’s realized income—even if the shareholder did not personally receive a distribution—without violating the Apportionment Clause or exceeding the Sixteenth Amendment. The Court did not decide whether Congress may tax purely unrealized gains in other contexts.