The IRS is ending a decadesold practice of having unarmed revenue officers visit households and businesses to help them resolve their account balances. The reason for the change Growing safety concerns for both employees who are increasingly dealing with hostile taxpayers and Americans who are contending with a growth in scam artists posing as agents. The IRS has been a target of Republican lawmakers and officials who have repeatedly said that the agency will use the tens of billions of dollars it is receiving from the Inflation Reduction Act which Democrats pushed through Congress last year to ramp up audits of everyday Americans. The Biden administration and agency officials argue that the enhanced scrutiny will be focused on higherincome taxpayers. The agency acknowledged that the move announced Monday is part of a larger effort to transform IRS operations after the passage of the law and the drafting of a new IRS Strategic Operating Plan in April. It will continue to focus on highincome taxpayers with tax issues the agency said. Earlier this month the IRS said it closed about delinquent tax cases for millionaires generating $1 million. This is just the start the agency says in a press release. We will continuing to go after delinquent millionaires as we ramp up enforcement capabilities through the IRA. The decision will help protect those whose jobs have only grown more dangerous in recent years because of the false inflammatory rhetoric about the agency and its workforce Tony Reardon national president of the National Treasury Employees Union said in a statement. Under the new policy less than a few hundred are expected to occur to service summonses and subpoenas or conduct sensitive enforcement activities involving the seizure of assets for instance. The new policy will increase confidence in our tax administration work and improve overall safety for taxpayers and IRS employees Danny Werfel IRS commissioner said. At the same time the uncertainty around what IRS employees faced when visiting these homes created stress for them as well. Typically tens of thousands of unannounced visits take place each year. The move will help the IRS beef up its staffing for compliance work while improved analytics will help it concentrate on those with the most serious tax problems. It is expected that less than 1,000 of these visits will occur each year and that they will only occur in a few special circumstances such as subpoenas and summonses for assets seizure. The change will be implemented by the end of the year and will be rolled out over the next few years in a phased approach to the agency’s tax enforcement strategy. The changes will be phased in over a period of years. The goal is to make the IRS more efficient and effective in its tax enforcement efforts. It also aims to reduce the number of times IRS employees are required to show up at taxpayers’ homes to collect unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. The cost of the changes is expected to be less than $1.5 million per year and the IRS says it will focus on compliance work for the next five years and the first three years will be the most effective. It says the changes will help reduce the cost of compliance work and reduce the risk of IRS employees being victimized by scam artists.
Taxpayers don’t have to worry about unannounced visits from the IRS anymore. The IRS is no longer sending agents to homes and offices.
