The IRS announced Monday that it will “end most” unannounced home visits in a move that “reverses a decades-long practice.”
"We are taking a fresh look at how the I.R.S. operates to better serve taxpayers and the nation, and making this change is a common-sense step," IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel, said in an official statement. "Changing this longstanding procedure will increase confidence in our tax administration work and improve overall safety for taxpayers and I.R.S. employees."
The agency noted that such visits would continue in only “unique” cases and that agents are generally dispatched in situations usually involving over $100,000 in outstanding tax bills.
The agency’s home-visit policy came under scrutiny after independent journalist Matt Taibbi revealed that he received an unannounced visit from IRS agents on the same day he testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his “Twitter Files” series, which implicated several government agencies in colluding with social-media companies to censor disfavored speech.
Consequently, Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), the committee chairman, sent a letter to the IRS and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to demand an explanation.
“If the resulting hubbub had any part in today's news, I'm glad and grateful to Chairman Jordan and his staff,” Taibbi told National Review on Monday afternoon.
Taibbi added that following his experience with the IRS, several people came forward and shared “far worse tales.”
“[M]y impression is there may be a broader pattern of using the IRS to investigate a range of politically irritating people, one that probably still needs looking into,” Taibbi added. “But this is a good step.”
The move was seen as part of the IRS’s latest attempt to reposition itself following an $80 billion cash infusion the agency received as part of the White House’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
"The IRS is going to hire more data scientists than they ever have for enforcement purposes," Wally Adeyemo, the deputy treasury secretary, told reporters during a press conference in early April.
The budget windfall was aimed at helping the agency's auditing capabilities and upgrading its outdated technology to transform the IRS into a "world-class" customer-service provider as well as to enhance tax enforcement.
"I hope that we can get better at forecasting, but I just think it's good management and leadership practice," IRS Commissioner Werfel told the press at the time. "For many, letters from the IRS in the mail could be a thing of the past. For the first time, the IRS will help taxpayers identify potential mistakes before filing."
However, Republicans opposed to the funding increase have pointed out that the IRS focuses the vast majority of its auditing efforts on poor and middle-income Americans, and have predicted the agency will only become more intrusive as it grows.
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