The
Internal Revenue Service (
IRS) is the
revenue service of the
United States federal government. The
agency is a bureau of the
Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the
Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The IRS is responsible for
collecting taxes and the interpretation and enforcement of the
Internal Revenue Code.
The first
income tax was assessed in 1862 to raise funds for the
American Civil War, with a rate of 3%. Today the IRS collects over $2.4 trillion each tax year from around 234 million tax returns.