There are two acronyms of IRS, one stands for Indian Revenue Service related to collecting direct and indirect taxes.. On the other hand, in the USA, the IRS was first established in 1862 by then-president Abraham Lincoln under the department of treasury. However, it is different from the Indian IRS as it is related to collecting income tax and employment tax.
Overview of IRS in India
The administration of India Income Tax started from the early 1860swhen provincial governments were in control of tax administration initially. The tax department in British India was started in 1922 and became an authoritative body in 1924 as the Central Board of Revenue The initial tax collection functioned in twelve provinces.
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IRS selection process in India
The Selection process for IRS officers generally starts from age 21 to 31 in a general category, 35 for OBC and 37 in the reserved category. Although upper age relaxation is provided to physically handicapped persons selected for this post is formulated by UPSC (Union Public Service Commission). The minimum educational qualification for any Bachelor degrees, a degree from AIU (Association of Indian University), degree of ICAI, ICSI, ICWAI. In recent times, IRS officers have to go training for various posts, after selection. LBSNAA (‘Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administer) to complete three months foundation course ration, ‘National Institute of Financial Management at Faridabad to complete 15 months custom and excise training and ‘National Academy of Direct Taxes’ at Nagpur to complete 15 months training in income tax. The salary for IRS officers is under the 7th pay commission scheme as per Indian Act. The selection process of IRS relies on passing the examination of Civil services (CSE). It is a selection process of three-stage competitive consisting of main examination, preliminary examination, and interview.
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IRS designation in India
The Indian Revenue Service is the fourth most respected administrative official right after IAS, IPS and IFS. IRS is divided into two branches, that is IRS(Customs and Central Excise) and IRS (Income Tax). The selected officers are appointed as law enforcement in CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), IB (Intelligence Bureau) and RAW (Research and Analytics Wing). The official holds power to search and seize illegal wealth accumulated areas, especially exposing and probing scams in the country. The post plays an important role to protect India from smuggling and maintaining preventive operations in smuggling and privacy even overseas.
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Functions of revenue officers in India
IRS officers mainly serve as prosecutors and investigators as well as being tax administrators. The intended tax evaders are being prosecuted to guarantee to collect revenues, which is the main motto for IRS officials. The IRS officers mainly take control over tax policies through
CBDT (Central Board of Direct taxes). In this regard, IRS officers also take initiatives to prevent money laundering, combating black money, with proper tax jurisdiction as per Indian law. In addition, IRS officers also manage various policy issues through phone conversations or letters, in the aspect of tax evasion. In this regard, overseeing the government’s money and ensuring funds owed to the state, central and regional governments is one of the main motives of the IRS officials. In this regard, there is a broad range of enforcement of IRS including- inquiring about the liability of owners and firm management for fund recovery penalty, installing agreements for grants, making referrals to
CID (Criminal Investigation Division) of Internal Revenue Service etc.
The role of IRS in finance and tax
Curbing and detecting black money is one of the important aspects of Indian revenue services. In this aspect, IRS officers are responsible in both domestic and international agreements to investigate misuse of money transactions. In this aspect, the IRS is responsible for investigating economic offences and providing enforcement of various economic laws.
Working of IRS in India
The primary function of IRS is collecting and levying taxes and headquarter of IRS is in New Delhi. It functions under revenue department of Ministry of Finance. In the financial year of 2017 to 2018, IRS (IT) collected almost 5, 87,13,458 returns, and excerpt the direct taxes of around ₹11.37 Lakh Cores.
Conclusion
Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that the functions of the IRS include enforcement and formulation of policy regarding services and goods tax, and prevention of smuggling. On that note, abuse of narcotic drugs, working to the forfeiture of the properties under smuggler and FEM (Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) under the Act, 1976 and Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 are also under the ambit of IRS officers.
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