What is the difference between Revenue Officer and Special Agent within the Internal Revenue Service?

Answer 1

Both of these positions are charged with enforcement federal tax law for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). However, there are differences between the two job classifications.

A Revenue Officer is charged with administering civil collection laws and collecting delinquent tax debt owed to the U.S. Treasury. They conduct administrative investigations for the purpose of locating taxpayers and their assets and determining a taxpayer's ability to pay an outstanding debt.

A Special Agent is responsible for conducting criminal investigations ofwillful attempts to defraud the U. S. Treasury. They conduct criminal investigations and when necessary, they recommend prosecution of such violations to the U. S. Attorney's Office.

Answer 2

Real simple difference. In the Internal Revenue Service, Revenue Officer are 100% tax collectors while Revenue Agents are 100% tax auditors. RA's determine whether the tax on a return is correct; while RO's collect tax.

Usually, RO's and RA's work from the same offices, but have very different caseloads. It's infrequent that they will ever work on the same case.