About the Internal Revenue Service

History

An income tax was not always part of the American political landscape. Although Lincoln had created on to help fund the Civil War, it only lasted a decade before being repealed. Other attempts to pass an income tax law were rule unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. It took the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913 to finally become law. Withholding of the tax from paychecks began during World War II, and shortly thereafter in the 1950's the Bureau of Internal Revenue became the Internal Revenue Service that exists today.

Seal of the Treasury Department
As a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, the IRS is part of the vast economic machine that runs the government of the United States. The IRS' function in this is the collection of taxes, in which it has a two-part mission. The first, and to a great extent the largest, is simply tax collection. Most of the IRS' resources are dedicated to this, including departments designed to help and support taxpayers who are having trouble paying. The second mission is enforcement. The IRS has the authority to pursue and prosecute anyone who neglects to pay their taxes, resulting in criminal charges and jail time in some circumstances.

The top two position in the IRS, that of Commissioner and Chief Council, are Presidential appointees, confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The rest of the IRS are hired, much the way the U.S. Postal service operates. There are three sub-organizations within the IRS, arranged around the Commissioner and two Deputy Commissioners. Tax collection and enforcement of tax laws occurs under the Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement. The other Deputy Commissioner's organization oversees the actual operations of the IRS. The Commissioner's office is responsible for much of the legal and communications aspects of the IRS, including handling all appeals made to the IRS.

The IRS takes money, but they don't keep it.
The IRS itself does not control how much taxes an individual (or corporate) taxpayer must pay. In fact, the IRS has no say at all in crafting tax laws. Rather, that job belongs to Congress, who makes the decision on who and how much to tax. The IRS is only responsible for enforcing the laws that Congress creates. How the IRS goes about that collection is within IRS control, as evidenced by their massive reorganizing in 1998. The IRS also does not disperse the taxes it collects. Those taxes, which total in the trillions of dollars each year, are handed over to other agencies within the U.S. Treasury.

The IRS is also only responsible for handling income taxes. This is a much broader category than just wages, of course. Taxes on income include any money a person or entity might acquire, such as winning the lottery or an inheritance. It also allows for the taxation of corporate profits. However, taxes such as sales taxes and property taxes are local, not federal taxes, and not handled by the IRS. Nor is the IRS responsible for any other withholdings from a person's paycheck, such as payments for social security and Medicare.