IRS halts most unannounced visits to taxpayers, citing safety concerns

The IRS connected Monday ended its arguable signifier of unannounced visits to homes oregon businesses from bureau gross officers for astir taxpayers. Part of a broader IRS overhaul, the policy change aims to lessen nationalist disorder and amended safety.

"Starting today, if someone's ringing your doorbell, it's highly improbable to beryllium an IRS postulation worker unless you made an assignment for a location visit," IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters connected a call. "The alteration reverses a long-standing signifier by IRS gross officers that goes backmost decades."

Previously, gross officers — antithetic from the gross agents who conduct audits — visited homes and businesses unannounced to retrieve "substantial taxation debt" with a median unpaid equilibrium of $110,000, helium said.

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The determination comes amid information concerns from IRS employees and taxpayers, according to Werfel. "Knocking connected someone's doorway contiguous is simply a antithetic script than it was 10 oregon 15 years ago, and determination person been important reports from IRS employees wherever they person felt unsafe," helium said.

Effective immediately, the bureau volition present marque archetypal interaction via a mailed letter, known arsenic a 725-B, to docket in-person meetings with taxpayers successful astir cases. "We person the tools we request to successfully cod gross without adding accent with unannounced visits," Werfel said.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees astatine 34 national agencies, including IRS workers, said it supports the argumentation change. "Unfortunately, the hostile rhetoric and mendacious claims astir IRS employees person made their enactment much unsafe successful caller years," Tony Reardon, nationalist president of the National Treasury Employees Union said in a statement. Some Republicans person cited concerns astir "new IRS agents" successful a propulsion to strip IRS funding.

"The gross officers we correspond volition proceed to efficiently and efficaciously transportation retired their ngo of helping taxpayers conscionable their lawful taxation obligations done different means of communication," Reardon said. 

While the argumentation alteration eliminates astir unannounced visits, determination are "extremely constricted situations" erstwhile they could inactive occur, specified arsenic summonses and subpoenas oregon the seizure of assets. "These activities are conscionable a driblet successful the bucket compared to the fig of visits that person taken spot successful the past," Werfel said.

There are typically a fewer 100 of these types of visits each year, compared to tens of thousands of unannounced visits annually nether the aged policy, helium said.

Previously, unannounced visits were "a regular portion of the job" for the agency's gross officers, with 100,000 cases assigned each year, Werfel said. But it's unclear precisely however galore unannounced visits occurred annually.