"The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied. … Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811.
H O W E V E R ...
Justice John Marshall had also officially clarified that Congress is prohibited from laying taxes in the name of state power issues, essentially anything which Congress cannot justify under the Constitution's Section 8 of Article I, the limited powers which the states have delegated to Congress.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." --Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
So to me, the reason that the rich constantly look for tax loopholes to keep Congress from stealing their wealth is that rich are probably not aware of Justice Marshall's case precedent which limits Congress's power to lay taxes.
Otherwise, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention arguably left it up to rich USA citizens to police Congress to make sure that Congress worked within its Section 8 limited powers.
There was this thing called
The Sixteenth Amendment
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
It permits the imposition of an income tax (on the rich or poor).
Of course there are those that believe it was never properly ratified by the states.