{"id":10774,"date":"2023-10-27T16:46:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/27\/irs-policy-allowing-surprise-visits-on-taxpayers-limited-after-judiciary-republicans-probing-report-says\/"},"modified":"2023-10-27T16:46:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:46:16","slug":"irs-policy-allowing-surprise-visits-on-taxpayers-limited-after-judiciary-republicans-probing-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/27\/irs-policy-allowing-surprise-visits-on-taxpayers-limited-after-judiciary-republicans-probing-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS policy allowing surprise visits on taxpayers limited after Judiciary Republicans\u2019 probing, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIRST ON FOX:<\/strong> The House Judiciary Committee\u2019s select subcommittee on government weaponization says the IRS rolled back unannounced visits to U.S. taxpayers after pressure from the panel.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Committee\u2019s and Select Subcommittee\u2019s oversight revealed, and led to the swift end of, the IRS\u2019s weaponization of unannounced field visits to harass, intimidate, and target taxpayers,\u2019 the Republican-led report said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Taxpayers can now rest assured the IRS will not come knocking without providing prior notice\u2014something that should have been the IRS\u2019s practice all along.\u2019<\/p>\n

The 22-page document focuses on two instances in which the IRS is accused of abusing its policy, including one in which a tax agent is accused of entering someone\u2019s home under false pretenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An IRS agent purportedly introduced himself as \u2018Bill Haus\u2019 to a woman only identified as a \u2018Marion County, Ohio taxpayer\u2019 when coming to her home in April this year. After allowing him inside, he allegedly told her that she owed a substantial amount of money on an estate she owned.<\/p>\n

\u2018Prior to the visit, however, the taxpayer had not received any notice from the IRS of an outstanding balance on the estate,\u2019 the report said.<\/p>\n

After the taxpayer showed documents disputing that she owed any money, the report said, \u2018Agent \u2018Haus\u2019 conceded that the true purpose of his visit was not due to any issue with the decedent\u2019s estate, rather Agent \u2018Haus\u2019 was at the taxpayer\u2019s home because the decedent allegedly had several delinquent tax return filings.\u2019<\/p>\n

A footnote on the report stated that the agent\u2019s supervisor confirmed the taxpayer had nothing due and just one delinquent filing from 2016.<\/p>\n

The woman called her lawyer after being asked to fill out sensitive tax documents, upon which her attorney \u2018immediately and repeatedly told Agent \u2018Haus\u2019 to leave the taxpayer\u2019s home since the taxpayer had not received any prior notice from the IRS of any issue with the decedent\u2019s estate or delinquent tax returns.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Agent \u2018Haus\u2019 responded aggressively, insisting, \u2018I am an IRS agent, I can be at and go into anyone\u2019s house at any time I want to be.\u2019 At the end of his unannounced visit, Agent \u2018Haus\u2019 told the taxpayer he would mail her paperwork for her to execute and threatened that she would have exactly one week to satisfy the remaining balance or he would freeze all her assets and put a lien on her house,\u2019 the report said.<\/p>\n

The woman contacted police after the visit, who later found that the agent did work for the IRS \u2014 but that \u2018Bill Haus\u2019 was not his real name. His supervisor apologized to her the following May, the report said.<\/p>\n

The other incident mentioned is involves journalist Matt Taibbi, whose home received a surprise IRS visit while he was in Washington, D.C. testifying about social media censorship uncovered by the \u2018Twitter Files.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The IRS\u2019s dossier on Mr. Taibbi included information such as Mr. Taibbi\u2019s voter registration records, whether he possessed a hunting or fishing license, and whether he had a concealed weapons permit. The revenue officer also examined and saved Mr. Taibbi\u2019s Wikipedia page, which contained extensive details about Mr. Taibbi\u2019s work on the Twitter Files,\u2019 the report said.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018Instead of reinitiating contact with Mr. Taibbi by less intrusive means after several years had passed since he filed his 2018 return, the revenue officer scheduled its field visit for March 9, 2023-the day Mr. Taibbi was to testify before Congress.\u2019<\/p>\n

The IRS announced in late July that it \u2018will end most unannounced visits\u2026to reduce public confusion and enhance overall safety measures for taxpayers and employees.\u2019<\/p>\n

But the GOP report heaped doubt on that explanation for reducing the practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The IRS\u2019s attempt to justify its decision as being in the best interest of the safety of its revenue officers lacks concrete evidence. To the extent this data does exist, the IRS has not made it publicly available or supplied it to the Committee or Select Subcommittee,\u2019 it said.<\/p>\n

\n
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Elizabeth Elkind is a reporter for Fox News Digital focused on Congress as well as the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and politics. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.<\/p>\n

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIRST ON FOX: The House Judiciary Committee\u2019s select subcommittee on government weaponization says the IRS rolled back unannounced visits to U.S. taxpayers after pressure from the panel. \u2018The Committee\u2019s and Select Subcommittee\u2019s oversight revealed, and led to the swift end of, the IRS\u2019s weaponization of unannounced field visits to harass, intimidate, and target taxpayers,\u2019 the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}