Home Visits: What You Need to Know About Employee Safety Concerns and Scams

Due to growing concerns about the safety of IRS workers and imposter scams, IRS officials won’t be knocking on Americans’ doors unexpectedly any longer.

IRS representatives won’t be knocking on Americans’ doors unannounced any longer due to growing worries about the safety of IRS employees and a counterfeit frauds. (Photo: postandcourier.com)

IRS Stops Home Visits

The organization announced this week that it is discontinuing its ten-year-old practice of dispatching collection professionals into the field to help taxpayers pay back unpaid charges — such as by clarifying the matter or setting up installment plans — and is switching to pre-arranging meetings.

The action reflects anxieties about the rising anti-IRS rhetoric and the possibility that innocent people could become victims of con artists, but it may also make it more difficult for the IRS and taxpayers to address tax issues as quickly as before, said Yahoo! Finance.

According to the press release from the current IRS Commissioner, Danny Werfel, these visits increased taxpayers’ already high levels of worry about prospective con artists. At the same time, the ambiguity around what would happen when IRS employees visited these residences caused stress for them as well. Both the action and the timing are appropriate at this point.

READ ALSO: Unannounced In Person Visits To Be Discontinued By IRS For Taxpayers’, Employees’ Safety

Safety Worries Have Increased

Due to their work, IRS workers have been the targets of violent crimes. The badges of those who lost their lives in the line of duty are displayed on a wall in the IRS headquarters, according to Larry Pon, a former IRS employee and CPA from the San Francisco Bay Area, who spoke with Yahoo Finance.

Recent widely circulated but false assertions made by Republican lawmakers and social media users that additional IRS funding will add 87,000 armed agents who may show up at taxpayers’ doorsteps have fueled anti-government fervor. That has aided in inciting resentment and terror toward the agency and its staff.

In article from postandcourier.com, said that taxpayers who do receive a special visit from the IRS typically have already been the subject of numerous letters from the agency attempting to fix a tax issue. The majority of Americans, however, are unaware of the agency’s protocols, leaving them open to imposter schemes.

For arbitrarily unpaid tax bills, scammers frequently threaten victims with jail time in an effort to mislead the taxpayer.

The organization has put in place security procedures for taxpayers to validate information on IRS employees.

Of course, the IRS cutting back on in-field agents has a downside, according to Greenwald, especially as the organization has been attempting to increase its capacity to assist people. He claimed that if you meet with the person, issues can be resolved quickly.

Yet, according to Greenwald, the organization must strike a balance between the advantages of tax collection and employee protection. The latter is the choice of the agency, report from Yahoo! Finance. 

READ ALSO: One Of The Agents In The IRS Admits To Breaking Into A Taxpayer’s Home Under A False Name