IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel speaks at a Senate Finance Committee listening to in Washington, D.C., on April 19, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The IRS on Monday ended its controversial observe of unannounced visits to properties or companies from company income officers for most taxpayers. Part of a broader IRS overhaul, the policy change goals to reduce public confusion and enhance safety.
“Starting today, if someone’s ringing your doorbell, it’s extremely unlikely to be an IRS collection employee unless you made an appointment for a home visit,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel informed reporters on a name. “The change reverses a long-standing practice by IRS revenue officers that goes back decades.”
Previously, income officers — completely different from the income brokers who conduct audits — visited properties and companies unannounced to get well “substantial tax debt” with a median unpaid steadiness of $110,000, he mentioned.
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The determination comes amid safety concerns from IRS staff and taxpayers, in accordance to Werfel. “Knocking on someone’s door today is a different scenario than it was 10 or 15 years ago, and there have been significant reports from IRS employees where they have felt unsafe,” he mentioned.
Effective instantly, the company will now make preliminary contact through a mailed letter, often called a 725-B, to schedule in-person conferences with taxpayers in most instances. “We have the tools we need to successfully collect revenue without adding stress with unannounced visits,” Werfel mentioned.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents staff at 34 federal companies, together with IRS employees, mentioned it helps the coverage change. “Unfortunately, the hostile rhetoric and false claims about IRS employees have made their work more dangerous in recent years,” Tony Reardon, nationwide president of the National Treasury Employees Union mentioned in a statement. Some Republicans have cited concerns about “new IRS agents” in a push to strip IRS funding.
“The revenue officers we represent will continue to efficiently and effectively carry out their mission of helping taxpayers meet their lawful tax obligations through other means of communication,” Reardon mentioned.
IRS visits should still happen in ‘extraordinarily restricted conditions’
While the coverage change eliminates most unannounced visits, there are “extremely limited situations” once they may nonetheless happen, akin to summonses and subpoenas or the seizure of belongings. “These activities are just a drop in the bucket compared to the number of visits that have taken place in the past,” Werfel mentioned.
There are usually a number of hundred of a majority of these visits annually, in contrast to tens of 1000’s of unannounced visits yearly underneath the outdated coverage, he mentioned.
Previously, unannounced visits had been “a routine part of the job” for the company’s income officers, with 100,000 instances assigned annually, Werfel mentioned. But it is unclear precisely what number of unannounced visits occurred yearly.