IRS Says Agents Will No Longer Be Knocking On Taxpayers’ Doors Unannounced

Agents of the Internal Revenue Service will no longer pay unannounced visits to taxpayers’ residences, the agency stated on Monday. This change in policy is intended to protect personnel’ safety from possibly hostile taxpayers who could answer the door.

According to agency officials, revenue agents have been knocking on taxpayers’ doors since at least the 1950s. These trips will be limited by the new policy to a few hundred per year, and only in exceptional circumstances.

The agency said it will send letters instructing people to schedule a meeting with a revenue officer rather than conducting house calls to individuals who have disregarded outstanding tax notices in the mail.

“This is the right thing to do and the right time to end it,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “We have the tools we need to successfully collect revenue without adding stress with unannounced visits.”

In extraordinary situations, such as when agents were preparing to take assets and the delinquent taxpayer might be hiding money “beyond the reach of the government,” the agency stated it would only dispatch police without warning.

The door-knockers have long been hampered by safety issues. The IRS claimed more than 30 years ago that agents were the most often assaulted federal law enforcement personnel, with hundreds of assaults per year. They were even instructed to use fictitious names for their own protection.

The organization has also committed to updating its computer systems so that artificial intelligence can someday evaluate tax data. The improvements should make it easier to identify tax fraudsters than simple audits.

IRS personnel projected that ending the door-to-door approach will aid in the agency’s effort to hire tax experts.

“These are some of the hardest jobs in government. … There is a better way of doing it,” IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said. “Another advantage is that if people have a greater sense of safety and security, that will help us bring good people in to the agency.”

The union representing IRS employees pushed for the change.

“The safety of IRS employees is of paramount importance and this decision will help protect those whose jobs have only grown more dangerous in recent years because of false, inflammatory rhetoric about the agency and its workforce,” National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said in a statement.

Werfel also mentioned that con artists have posed as IRS officers to knock on homes, a fraud that should be simpler to spot under the new approach.