The IRS comprises of IRS Customs and Central Excise (C&CE) and IRS Income Tax (IT). It is one of the Group a Central Civil Service of India. The cadre controlling authority for IRS is Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) / Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

The Service was formed during the year 1946. The selected candidates go through training sessions in different institutes:

i. Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration at Massouri: 3 month foundation course.
ii. National Institute of Financial Management at Faridabad: 15 month profession training for officers of Customs and Excise.

iii. National Academy of Direct Taxes at Nagpur: 15 month profession training for officers of Income Tax.
Cadre size: 2311 (C&CE), 2500 (IT) posts (direct recruitment: 50%, promotion: 50%. Lateral entry if any).
Functions of the Officers

IRS officers are concerned with the collection, administration and policy formation of direct (viz. Income, Corporate, Wealth, FBT etc.) and indirect (viz. Central Excise, Service Tax and even Customs Duty) taxes.