What Is The Internal Revenue Service IRS ? What Does It Do?
What Is The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)? What Does It Do? Bankrate Caret RightMain Menu Mortgage Mortgages Financing a home purchase Refinancing your existing loan Finding the right lender Additional Resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Bank Banking Compare Accounts Use calculators Get advice Bank reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Credit Card Credit cards Compare by category Compare by credit needed Compare by issuer Get advice Looking for the perfect credit card? Narrow your search with CardMatch Caret RightMain Menu Loan Loans Personal Loans Student Loans Auto Loans Loan calculators Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Invest Investing Best of Brokerages and robo-advisors Learn the basics Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Home Equity Home equity Get the best rates Lender reviews Use calculators Knowledge base Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Loan Home Improvement Real estate Selling a home Buying a home Finding the right agent Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Insurance Insurance Car insurance Homeowners insurance Other insurance Company reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Retirement Retirement Retirement plans & accounts Learn the basics Retirement calculators Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Advertiser Disclosure
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.
833-553-9895 for other languages Request a face-to-face meeting 844-545-5640 Before calling one of the IRS’s phone numbers, be sure to have your Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), birth dates, filing status, previous correspondence and the tax return you’re calling about. This information will help the IRS representative to identify you and best answer your questions.
Advertiser Disclosure
We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.
How We Make Money
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. SHARE: Glowimages/Getty Images October 21, 2021 Checkmark Bankrate logo How is this page expert verified? At Bankrate, we take the accuracy of our content seriously. "Expert verified" means that our Financial Review Board thoroughly evaluated the article for accuracy and clarity. The Review Board comprises a panel of financial experts whose objective is to ensure that our content is always objective and balanced. Their reviews hold us accountable for publishing high-quality and trustworthy content. Erin Gobler is a personal finance expert and journalist who seeks to make the financial services industry more accessible by breaking down complicated financial topics in simple terms. Lance Davis is the Vice President of Content for Bankrate. Lance leads a team responsible for creating educational content that guides people through the pivotal steps in their financial journey. Kenneth Chavis IV is a senior wealth manager who provides comprehensive financial planning, investment management and tax planning services to business owners, equity compensated executives, engineers, medical doctors and entertainers. Bankrate logoThe Bankrate promise
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money. Bankrate logoThe Bankrate promise
Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by and edited by , who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy. Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money. Bankrate logoEditorial integrity
Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information. Bankrate logoHow we make money
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.What is the Internal Revenue Service IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury and is responsible for assessing and collecting tax revenue in the United States. The IRS dates back to 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln enacted the nation’s first income tax to pay for the Civil War. The IRS has gone through several changes, reorganizations and modernizations over the years, including being renamed and placed under the authority of the Department of Treasury. The mission of the IRS is to carry out the tax laws in the United States. It assesses and collects taxes, helps taxpayers understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforces tax laws to ensure everyone pays their fair share.What does the IRS do
The IRS has many responsibilities, which can largely be broken down into three categories: tax collection, taxpayer services and tax law enforcement.Collecting taxes
One of the most important responsibilities of the IRS is to assess and collect taxes on behalf of the federal government. In 2020, the IRS in taxes made up of income taxes, employment taxes, business , excise taxes and estate and gift taxes. Along with collecting taxes, the IRS is also responsible for , which an individual or business can receive as a result of the overpayment of taxes.Providing services to taxpayers
Another important responsibility of the IRS is providing services to taxpayers. These services are provided through the IRS website, its telephone helplines, IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers and volunteer tax assistance. In 2020, the IRS assisted through these communication methods, in addition to the 1.6 billion visits to the IRS website that year.Enforcing tax laws
A final responsibility of the IRS is the enforcement of tax laws. The IRS seeks to identify those who have underpaid their taxes, whether as a result of a math error or criminal activity. These examinations usually take the form of either correspondence or field examinations. From 2010 to 2018, the IRS about 0.63 percent of individual tax returns and 1 percent of corporate tax returns for errors. While most errors likely aren’t intentional, the IRS completed 2,624 criminal investigations in 2020 alone.Who operates the IRS
The IRS is overseen by a commissioner who is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The commissioner serves five-year terms. The other appointed position within the agency is the IRS Chief Counsel. The Office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue was created by Congress in 1862, and changes were made to the office in the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998. The current commissioner of the IRS is Charles P. Rettig, who took over the office in September 2018. In addition to being under the authority of the IRS commissioner, the agency is also overseen by the IRS Oversight Board. The board was created by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 to provide long-term guidance and expertise to help the IRS best meet the needs of taxpayers.How you may interact with the IRS
If you’re a taxpayer in the United States, you interact with the IRS whether you realize it or not. The most common way most people interact with the IRS is through the payment of their individual income taxes. Regardless of whether you use software or a financial professional to , your return eventually ends up with the IRS. And if you qualify for a federal tax refund, it’s the IRS that you receive it from. During the pandemic, most taxpayers have had even more interactions with the IRS. Over the span of about a year, the federal government issued three different Economic Impact Payments (known as stimulus checks) to taxpayers whose income fell under a certain level. You may have received a stimulus check from the IRS either as a direct deposit into your bank account or as a check in the mail. A less desirable interaction you may have with the IRS is if you’re subject to an audit. An audit could occur if you fail to report income you earned throughout the year, make a math error on your tax return, claim too many business or and more. In the most simple type of audit, the IRS may request more information from you. But they may also do a field audit, where they conduct a full audit of your tax return, often in a face-to-face setting (at least pre-pandemic). These are just a few examples of interactions you might have with the IRS. You may have visited the IRS website before to use one of the many tools and services they offer or may have spoken to an IRS representative to get your tax questions answered.How to contact the IRS
There are a variety of reasons you might need to contact the IRS, including asking tax-filing questions, inquiring about a tax refund, paying your tax bill and more. The simplest way to get answers to your tax questions is using the on the IRS website, where you can find answers to a wide range of tax questions. If you need more personalized help or have a question that can’t be answered with the interactive tax assistant, you can call one of the many IRS phone numbers. Here are the numbers for a variety of tax topics: Individual taxes 800-829-1040 Business taxes 800-829-4933 Non-profit taxes 877-829-5500 Estate and gift taxes 866-699-4083 Excise taxes 866-699-4096 Overseas callers 267-941-1000 Hearing-impaired callers 800-829-4059 Interpretation services 800-829-1040 for Spanish833-553-9895 for other languages Request a face-to-face meeting 844-545-5640 Before calling one of the IRS’s phone numbers, be sure to have your Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), birth dates, filing status, previous correspondence and the tax return you’re calling about. This information will help the IRS representative to identify you and best answer your questions.