IRS brokers use faux names to ‘harass and intimidate’ taxpayers, weaponization report reveals
The IRS permits its brokers to make use of faux names once they contact taxpayers, based on a congressional report Friday that discovered the pseudonyms can create a tense and doubtlessly harassing system.
The House Judiciary Committee documented a case in Ohio the place an IRS agent confirmed up at a taxpayer’s house unannounced, lied about his identify and his motive for the go to, refused to depart when ordered by the girl’s lawyer, threatened to freeze the taxpayer’s property after which filed a grievance in opposition to the police once they responded.
Police discovered the person’s habits so unusual that they initially concluded he was an imposter. It was solely after they contacted the IRS‘s inspector general that they learned the man was a real agent, using a fake name, “Agent Bill Haus.”
Making the situation more bizarre, the woman didn’t really owe something — a truth the IRS confirmed to her after the intrusive go to.
A significant within the Marion Police Department advised the committee he “found this entire situation odd.”
The lady was so traumatized that she thought the agent may “break into her house,” the main reported to Congress.
“She is truly in fear of this man. What is more concerning, she had contacted the IRS, verified she has a zero balance and she indicates that the person she spoke with on the phone has no idea why an agent would be coming to her home,” mentioned the main, whose identify was redacted within the report.
The Judiciary Committee launched the account of the go to as a part of a probe into “weaponization” of the IRS.
The investigation explored one other unannounced IRS go to paid to Matt Taibbi, a journalist who uncovered authorities efforts to censor opposing viewpoints made on Twitter. That unannounced go to got here the identical day Mr. Taibbi was testifying to Congress.
The Republican investigation additionally revealed that the IRS was so keen to focus on Mr. Taibbi that it opened its investigation on Christmas Eve, which was additionally a Saturday, simply three weeks after he broke his first story about what has come to be often known as the “Twitter Files.”
As with the girl in Ohio, it turned out Mr. Taibbi didn’t owe the IRS something and in reality was due a refund he had not but been paid.
The committee report mentioned these tales ought to be regarding given the tens of billions of {dollars} Democrats in Congress pumped into the IRS in final 12 months’s budget-climate invoice.
“No American should fall victim to deception from their own government to threaten and pressure them into submission,” the committee report mentioned. “The details that the committee and select subcommittee gathered about IRS abuses are shocking examples of the federal government’s weaponization.”
The Washington Times has reached out to the IRS for this report.
Agency officers have already got made some modifications to coverage, together with an order usually prohibiting income brokers from making unannounced visits.
Congressional Republicans mentioned that coverage change was a results of the GOP’s investigation.
“Pressure and oversight about these abusive field visits led the IRS to repeal its policy of allowing its agents to conduct unannounced field visits to taxpayers’ homes. The IRS is no longer able to weaponize its field visits to target, harass and intimidate taxpayers,” the report mentioned.
New IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel mentioned banning the visits would “improve overall safety for taxpayers and IRS employees.”
But the committee report questioned that, saying the IRS has by no means produced proof that its personal brokers had been endangered.
