when did the irs come into existence and why
Internal Revenue Service 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 the 1950s, 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.