IRS
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | Internal Revenue Service |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Government & Politics, Business & Finance |
IRS has two meanings. It stands for Internal Revenue Service (US federal agency) or Interest rate swap (bond & Fixed-Income).
Meanings of IRS at a glance
| # | IRS stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Internal Revenue Service | Government & Politics › US Federal Agency |
| 2 | Interest rate swap | Business & Finance › Bond & Fixed-Income |
1. Internal Revenue Service
Government & Politics · US Federal Agency Abbreviations
Collects federal income, payroll, estate and excise taxes, processes more than 150 million individual returns a year, issues refunds and audits taxpayers. A bureau of the Treasury Department, it is headed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
Example: The IRS will begin accepting electronically filed returns in late January.
The office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue was created in 1862 to help finance the Civil War, and the agency was called the Bureau of Internal Revenue until 1953. The modern income tax rests on the Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913. The IRS normally makes first contact by mail, so unexpected calls or texts demanding payment are a common scam sign.
2. Interest rate swap
Business & Finance · Bond & Fixed-Income Abbreviations
Derivative contract in which two parties exchange interest payments on a notional amount, most commonly fixed-rate payments for floating-rate payments tied to a benchmark such as SOFR. Companies use swaps to hedge borrowing costs, and banks use them to manage balance-sheet risk.
Example: The company entered a five-year IRS to convert its floating-rate term loan into fixed-rate debt.
Interest rate swaps are the largest segment of the over-the-counter derivatives market, with notional amounts in the hundreds of trillions of dollars. After the 2008 crisis, most standard swaps moved to central clearing. In the US, IRS far more commonly means the Internal Revenue Service.
Related abbreviations
More US federal agency abbreviations
- HUD – United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
- ICC – Interstate Commerce Commission
- ICE – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- IHS – Indian Health Service
- LOC – Library of Congress
- MSHA – Mine Safety and Health Administration
- NARA – National Archives and Records Administration
- NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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