From Marketplace:
It actually started off on January first very early on in the government’s history. In 1842, President Tyler actually shifted it to July 1 to June 30. And then in the 1970s, when Nixon was withholding funds to try and get the budget under control, they shifted it to October 1. The idea was to give the government more time to actually get their budget in order…which didn’t really work because since that time we’ve only actually set the budget on time four times.
More on setting fiscal years for public and private institutions at Marketplace here.
