…The United States of America's tax collecting agency is called the Internal Revenue Service, more commonly known as the IRS. The US government gives the IRS authority to enforce the internal revenue laws. In other words, the IRS can fight tax dodging with legal action.

Taxes are levied against sums of money or property and goods and services. The most famed taxes are the income tax which takes a percentage of one's annual income, and the sales tax which is a percentage of the price of a good purchased. However, a state can impose a tax on almost anything. For instance, the historical Boston Tea Party arose out of American anger at heavy taxes on tea that England imposed on the American colonies. Property taxes, corporate taxes, inheritance taxes, capital gains taxes, among others, are other ways that a state earns tax revenue.

Usually, taxes are collected to fund government projects and to better state infrastructure as a whole. As more money may be required for projects at certain times than others, such as in times of war, the level of taxation is prone to change. Raising or lowering taxes is often a major topic of debate during presidential elections because different levels of taxation may financially benefit or harm people of different classes of wealth.