Why the IRS Is Making a Big Tax Collecting Change — and How It Affects You

Why the IRS Is Making a Big Tax Collecting Change — and How It Affects You

David Nadelle  Fri, July 28, 2023

In what its calls a “major policy change,” the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced July 24 that it would be discontinuing its practice of unannounced visits to taxpayers. The agency cited a need to increase safety standards for the public and its employees — and to stop scam artists from posing as IRS agents to threaten taxpayers.  The change is part of a larger operational policy reconstruction brought upon by the passing of the last year’s Inflation Reduction Act as well as the delivery of the new IRS Strategic Operating Plan in April.

“We are taking a fresh look at how the IRS operates to better serve taxpayers and the nation, and making this change is a common-sense step,” IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said. “Changing this long-standing procedure will increase confidence in our tax administration work and improve overall safety for taxpayers and IRS employees.”

For decades, IRS employees have sometimes visited taxpayers in person, unannounced and unarmed, to resolve account balances and to collect unpaid taxes and unfiled returns.

However, since the Inflation Reduction Act provided for an increase in funding to help improve IRS services and technology, a number of Republican lawmakers assumed this money would be used to increase the number of employees and, in turn, escalate audits. This would ostensibly lead to unwanted and unnecessary home visits.

As CBS News reported, false and exaggerated information about IRS operating policies has resulted in its employees feeling less safe. Some agency antagonists went as far as to jump on social media and warn people of the IRS’s intention to arm its agents on taxpayer visits. This view has been vehemently denied by the IRS and its union, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-irs-making-big-tax-181541342.html