Tax is an important source of revenue for the government of any country, developed or developing. Any citizen earning income as an individual by working in an organization or by providing consultancy services or by any other means becomes liable to pay tax. However, there has to be a difference between people earning a higher income and those with a relatively low income. The two sets of people cannot be treated at par for the simple reason that a low earning individual might not have more disposable money to pay as tax.

Business organizations, in various legal forms also earn income much more than what an individual could possibly earn. This is because the nature and volume of business, the employee strength and the prevailing economic conditions. Therefore these entities also become responsible to pay tax.

The principles which lay down clearly the amount of tax to be paid by different groups of people are called tax laws. These laws differ from one nation to another depending on the economic conditions and the status of the country itself. Every country has its own taxation regulatory body that takes care of setting the tax laws and revealing them to the public.

Tax laws also need to be constantly updated and modified as per the growth conditions of the country and its resources. For e.g. an individual working in a particular designation at any company or industry today might be earning much more than what another person in the same designation and company would have earned, say ten years ago. In that case, when the income of an individual increases, his tax paying ability also increases and therefore the need to increase or modify tax rates arises.

Taking the example of United States, the world’s most developed nation, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the regulatory authority which lays down the tax laws for individuals as well as organizations. The monitoring of compliance with the tax laws is also undertaken by the IRS and the responsibility of the actual collection of tax from individuals and companies also vests with the IRS.

The tax laws start with the definitions of basic terms related to income such as ‘Gross Income’, ‘Net Income’, ‘Assessment Year’, ‘Previous Year’, ‘Salaries’, ‘Professional Income’, ‘Income from other sources’, ‘Adjusted Gross Income’, and ‘Taxable Income’. For instance Gross Income is a term that is defined as ‘all income from whatever source derived’. There are also individual classifications of income from various sources and the scope of each is also clearly laid down.

The tax laws for individuals and companies differ taking into consideration the exclusive problems and situations faced by the latter. The tax laws also lay down the process for any entity to declare its income to the tax authorities. Various forms are available for filing the income tax returns depending on the classification of income – i.e. individual income, business income etc.

Thus tax laws help the government in earning its major source of revenue as well as assist the tax payers to assess and understand their tax obligations.

IRS tax settlements can offer a ray of hope for those who find themselves greatly indebted to this agency. Proceeding with caution, however, is almost always advised when a settlement agreement is in the making.