A revenue service, revenue agency or taxation authority is a

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

responsible for the intake of

government revenue Government revenue or national revenue is money received by a government from Tax revenue, taxes and Non-tax revenue, non-tax sources to enable it, assuming full resource employment, to undertake non-inflationary public expenditure. Government re ...

, including

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

es and sometimes non-tax revenue. Depending on the

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

, revenue services may be charged with tax collection, investigation of

tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...

, or carrying out

audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing al ...

s. In certain instances, they also administer payments to certain relevant individuals (such as statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay) as well as targeted financial support ( welfare) to families and individuals (through payment of

tax credit A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "dis ...

s or transfer payments). The chief executive of the revenue agency is usually styled as Commissioner, Minister, Secretary or Director.

Revenue services by jurisdiction

References

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