The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the United States government agency that
collects taxes and enforces the tax laws. It is a part of the Department of the
Treasury.
In 1862, during the Civil War, President Lincoln and Congress created the
Commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses.
The agency created to enforce these taxes was named for the internal revenue
they would collect in contrast to U.S. government institutions that collected
external revenue through duties and tariffs. The income tax was repealed 10
years later. In 1894, Congress revived the income tax, but the Supreme Court
ruled it unconstitutional the following year.
In 1913, the states ratified the 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the
authority to enact an income tax, removing the restrictions on income taxes. In
1918, to finance World War I, the top rate of the income tax rose to 77%. During
the post-war years, the top rate was lowered to 24%, but rose again during the
Great Depression. During World War II, Congress introduced payroll withholding
and quarterly tax payments, ostensibly as an emergency measure.
In the 1950s, career professional employees replaced the patronage system.
Currently, only the IRS Commissioner and Chief Counsel are selected by the
President and confirmed by the Senate. The Bureau of Internal Revenue name also
was changed to the Internal Revenue Service to emphasize service to taxpayers.
It is organized into four divisions: Large & Mid-Size Business (LMSB), Small
Business / Self-Employed (SB/SE), Wage and Investment (W&I), and Tax Exempt &
Government Entities (TE/GE).
The main headquarters of
the IRS is located at 1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W. in Washington, D.C.
The source of this article is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this
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