Interesting Facts About The IRS:
The IRS has a special Criminal Investigation (CI) branch made up of 3,500 employees worldwide whose main job is to investigate tax and money laundering. CI special agents have badges and are allowed to carry weapons but do not have uniforms. Qualified retired CI agents are exempt from concealed weapon laws.
The IRS is a United States government agency that consists of four primary divisions: Wage and Investment, Large Business and International, Small Business/Self-Employed, and Tax-Exempt and Government Agencies. Its mission statement is to “provide America’s taxpayers top-quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.”
Previous to 1862, the government only collected sales tax on certain items such as alcohol and tobacco. President Lincoln created the IRS and enacted a 3% income tax on those who made between $600 and $10,000 to assist in covering Civil War costs. This would be repealed 10 years later.
After the initial income tax was repealed in 1872, the position of commissioner of Internal Revenue was once again in charge of taxes on goods such as sugar and tobacco. In 1894, income tax was enacted and then repealed a year later yet again, as Congress ruled it unconstitutional.
To help combat the growing number of tax frauds, in 2012 the IRS doubled the number of employees working to prevent identity theft and refund fraud prevention assistance to 3,000 workers.
When the income tax was fully established in 1913, the tax rate was 1%. Few paid income tax to the IRS, as it was required only if you made $3,000 or more per year. That year only 1 out of 271 Americans had to pay income tax.
When the IRS 1040 tax form was first introduced in 1914, it had only 3 pages including the instructions. Today, the 1040 has 101 pages of instructions alone.
In 2014, 35% of calls to the IRS were unanswered by IRS customer service representatives.
In fiscal year 2014, the IRS spent 38 cents for every $100 it collected.
The IRS Intelligence Unit used undercover agents to gather evidence against gangster Al Capone in 1913. He was charged with tax evasion and received an 11-year sentence.
Part of the difficulty of understanding taxes has been the ever-changing tax code. From fiscal years 2000 to 2010, the IRS implemented over 4,000 changes to the tax code, with 570 of the changes taking place in 2010 alone.