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The Internal Revenue Service headquarters building in the Federal Triangle complex, Washington, D.C.
Executive Branch

The Internal Revenue Service

The bureau of the Treasury Department that collects federal taxes, issues refunds, and enforces the tax code, how it's structured, where it came from, how filing actually works, and the unusually turbulent leadership churn and staffing cuts that have defined the agency since 2025.

FY2026 Federal Tax Revenue - Live Estimate

Treasury ↗
$0

Collected since October 1, 2025, at an estimated +$158,500/sec toward a CBO-projected $5.0 trillion for FY2026. About 96% of all federal revenue is collected through the IRS. This is a live estimate extrapolated between official reporting dates, not a real-time feed, actual figures are published daily by Treasury and are usually close to this projection but can differ. The IRS's own most recently completed fiscal year, FY2024, brought in a confirmed $5.1 trillion in gross collections, an all-time high, according to the IRS Data Book.

1862
Predecessor Agency Created
~68,000
Employees (2026, post-cuts)
$5T+
Collected Annually
No Confirmed
Commissioner (as of 2026)

What Is the IRS?

The Internal Revenue Service is the bureau within the Treasury Department responsible for collecting nearly all federal tax revenue, more than $5 trillion in a typical year, and administering the tax code Congress writes. It processes over 160 million individual returns annually, issues most federal tax refunds, and enforces compliance through audits and, in the most serious cases, criminal investigation.

Who's Running the IRS Right Now?

As of this page's publication, the IRS does not have a Senate-confirmed Commissioner. Danny Werfel departed in January 2025, followed by a rapid succession of acting leaders; Billy Long was confirmed in June 2025 but left the role weeks later that August. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent served as Acting Commissioner into 2026 before his temporary legal authority expired, and day-to-day leadership has since fallen to an appointed "IRS CEO" role, an arrangement legal commentators have flagged as constitutionally unusual since it exercises commissioner-level authority without Senate confirmation. This is covered in more detail in the History tab.

How the IRS Is Organized

Sources & Further Reading

Staffing, funding, and leadership figures reflect reporting available as of this page's publication in August 2026. The exact remaining balance of the Inflation Reduction Act's original IRS funding allocation is disputed across sources due to overlapping rescissions in subsequent legislation, and is described here in general terms rather than as a single precise figure. Audit statistics are sourced to the IRS's 2024 Data Book and predate the agency's 2025 workforce reductions.

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