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 Ten years later the income tax was repealed.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