The IRS has announced a major yet “common-sense” policy change that will put an end to most unannounced agent visits to taxpayers’ homes. This move reverses decades of policy that saw IRS revenue officers knock on the doors of taxpayers’ homes without forewarning in attempts to resolve delinquent tax matters.
The IRS says that the reason for the change is to lower the risk that anxiety-provoking surprise home visits by tax enforcement agents could spiral out of control, posing a hazard to both taxpayers and agency field officers. Experience has shown that unannounced door knocks at homes and businesses were high-risk encounters, with agents routinely facing “hazards and uncertainty” when making surprise visits, according to the IRS.
“These visits created extra anxiety for taxpayers already wary of potential scam artists,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “At the same time, the uncertainty around what IRS employees faced when visiting these homes created stress for them as well. This is the right thing to do and the right time to end it.”
According to the IRS, is that there has been a rise in recent years of scam artists posing as IRS agents, creating confusion for both taxpayers and local law enforcement.
Mr. Werfel said on July 24 that the agency is adding more staff and resources for compliance work that focuses on key areas such as high-income taxpayers with tax issues.
“We have the tools we need to successfully collect revenue without adding stress with unannounced visits,” he said.
“The only losers with this change in policy are scammers posing as the IRS.”
The change affects the unarmed division of the IRS, not its criminal investigations unit, which takes on serious tax crimes and whose officers are authorized to carry guns and make raids. Under the previous policy, there were tens of thousands of unannounced IRS agent visits to taxpayers’ homes each year.
So now, instead of unannounced door knocks, IRS agents will send letters to taxpayers to schedule in-person meetings - with “extremely limited” situations in which unannounced visits will occur.
“These rare instances include service of summonses and subpoenas; and also sensitive enforcement activities involving seizure of assets, especially those at risk of being placed beyond the reach of the government,” the IRS said in a statement. These types of situations represent a small fraction—fewer than several hundred each year—of surprise door knocks on taxpayers’ doors, according to the agency.
The policy change doesn’t affect the work of the IRS Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) unit, a division whose agents investigate crimes such as fraud and tax evasion - and carry guns.