| The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the largest | | | | forms and guidelines citizens need to file their tax |
| bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. | | | | returns, and providing information and support to make |
| Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the agency is | | | | it easier for people to understand and obey tax |
| responsible for assessing and collecting most types of | | | | regulations. |
| taxes owed by individual citizens and businesses. The | | | | The origins of the IRS go back to the American Civil |
| term internal revenue refers to government income | | | | War (1861-65). Needing to generate funding to cover |
| from domestic sources (that is, internal to the nation), | | | | war expenses, President Lincoln and Congress initiated |
| as opposed to income from foreign (external) sources, | | | | a federal income tax by passing the Revenue Act of |
| such as fees imposed on foreign merchants who sell | | | | 1862. The act also established a federal agency, the |
| their goods in the United States. The government uses | | | | Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the head office of the |
| the tax money it collects to fund the nation's military | | | | Commissioner of Internal Revenue, to oversee tax |
| defense, space exploration, maintenance of national | | | | collection. Ten years later the income tax was |
| highways and other public facilities, law enforcement, | | | | repealed. Although Congress attempted to reinstate an |
| and public services such as libraries and education. | | | | income tax in 1894, the Supreme Court ruled it |
| Each year individual taxpayers must file their annual | | | | unconstitutional a year later. |
| returns, or a request for an extension, by April 15, while | | | | Income taxes did not become a permanent fixture of |
| corporations must file their returns (or extension | | | | American life until 1913, when the Sixteenth |
| requests) by March 15. In 2003 it was estimated that | | | | Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, authorizing |
| the IRS received more than 130 million personal income | | | | Congress to enact an income tax. In 1953 the bureau |
| tax returns and almost 6 million corporate income tax | | | | was renamed the Internal Revenue Service, in an |
| returns, amounting to trillions of dollars in tax revenue. | | | | effort to emphasize its obligation to "serve" the |
| In addition to collecting taxes, the agency is also | | | | American public. |
| responsible for enforcing tax laws, distributing the | | | | |