Yahoo Finance IRS stops most home visits over employee safety concerns and scams
IRS agents won’t be knocking on Americans’ doors unannounced anymore because of increasing worries over agents' safety and imposter scams.
The agency this week said it’s ending its decade-long practice of sending collection specialists into the field to assist taxpayers in paying back outstanding liabilities — such as explaining the issue or setting up installment plans — and is shifting instead to scheduling meetings beforehand.
The move reflects concerns over the escalating anti-IRS rhetoric along with worries that unassuming taxpayers may fall prey to scam artists, but it may also make it harder for the IRS and taxpayers to resolve tax issues as fast as before.
"These visits created extra anxiety for taxpayers already wary of potential scam artists," Danny Werfel, current IRS Commissioner, said in the press release. "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."
Safety concerns heightened
IRS employees have been victims of violent crimes because of their occupation. For instance, a man intentionally crashed his aircraft into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, in 2010, killing one IRS worker and injuring 13 others. Perpetrators have also kidnapped, assaulted, and committed various crimes against tax employees throughout history.
"In the IRS building, there's a wall that's got the badges of the people who died in the line of duty,” Larry Pon, former IRS employee and CPA based in the San Francisco Bay Area, told Yahoo Finance.
Recent viral, but inaccurate claims from social media users and some Republican lawmakers that increased funding for the IRS would add 87,000 armed agents who could come to taxpayer doorsteps have further flamed anti-government sentiment. That has helped to spark anger and fear toward the agency and its employees.
"There has been a great deal of demonization of the service," Mark Everson, a former IRS Commissioner from 2003 until 2007 and vice chairman at alliantgroup, told Yahoo Finance. "I'm sure that the employees who are in this line of work feel at risk."
"There's a climate out there suggesting that IRS employees are armed. And that is false," Doreen Greenwald, the national executive vice president for National Treasury Employee Union and a former IRS revenue officer, added. "When agents knock on somebody's door they don't know what to expect, so there have been incidents where employees have found themselves in dangerous situations."
The only armed IRS department is the Criminal Investigation (CI), a branch investigating tax, money laundering, and Bank Secrecy Act laws. This is a small group compared with the overall IRS department. There are only 3,000 CI employees, or 3.8% of the agency's 79,070 staffers, according to the agency’s most recent data book.
"The blue shirt and the blue jacket — those are the criminal investigation, the law enforcement part of the IRS,” Pon said. “They're the ones who raid people's houses. They're the ones with the guns."
Prevalent scamming
Typically, taxpayers who do get a special visit from the IRS would have already received multiple letters from the agency trying to resolve a tax problem. But the majority of Americans aren’t aware of the agency’s procedures, making them vulnerable to imposter scams.
"The IRS would never just show up. They would have already sent you letters," Pon said. "If an agent is at your door, there have been half a dozen letters that have been sent to you."
Overall, government imposter scams were a top fraud type from 2014 to 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission. So far this year, there have been 1,396 reported IRS imposter scams, totaling $2.76 million in losses. Nearly one in four victims reported a loss and the median loss was $279.
Scammers often threaten victims with jail time for arbitrary unpaid tax bills to defraud the taxpayer.
The agency has implemented security measures for taxpayers to verify IRS worker information. Legitimate revenue officers must provide two types of government-issued identification with serial numbers and a photo of the agent. Taxpayers can also call a hotline to confirm the officer's legitimacy. But even so, some scammers carry fake identifications, including counterfeit badges and business cards with non-working phone numbers.
"But even with these different verification things, there were still challenges to the IRS personnel in the field," Greenwald said. "There were ongoing scammers that were out there pretending to be federal employees and that still worked."
That’s because real agents can still be hard to identify because they look like regular people during assignments.
"Agents drive their own cars," Pon said, "and wear their own clothes."
Consequences of no visits
Of course, there is a drawback from the IRS pulling back on in-field agents, Greenwald said, especially as the agency has been trying to ramp up its ability to help taxpayers.
"You are able to resolve things quickly once you meet with the person," Greenwald said.
For instance, Everson remembers when a taxpayer showed up at his door one Sunday night.
"She was distraught. She didn't come with the intent of violence. She just wanted to get some help to resolve her problem,” Everson said.
Still, Greenwald said, the agency has “to balance the benefit of collecting taxes with also protecting employees." The agency is choosing the latter.
Rebecca Chen is a reporter for Yahoo Finance and previously worked as an investment tax certified public accountant (CPA).
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
