<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service of the United States federal government . The government agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who is appointed to a five - year term by the President of the United States . The IRS is responsible for collecting taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of federal statutory tax law of the United States . The duties of the IRS include providing tax assistance to taxpayers and pursuing and resolving instances of erroneous or fraudulent tax filings . The IRS has also overseen various benefits programs, and enforces portions of the Affordable Care Act . </P> <P> The IRS originated with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, a federal office created in 1862 to assess the nation's first income tax, which was to raise funds for the American Civil War . The temporary measure provided over a fifth of the Union's war expenses and was allowed to expire a decade later . In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified authorizing Congress to impose a tax on income, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue was established . In 1953, the agency was renamed the Internal Revenue Service and significantly reorganized . The Tax Reform Act of 1986 modernized the IRS and restructured it along a private sector model . </P>

Who has the power to collect taxes from citizens