The Patriot Post® · IRS Ends 'Most' Home Visits Under Congressional Pressure

It only took a 22-page report to end an onerous IRS practice that, it was argued, had been in place for “several decades.”

While Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan’s run at the House speakership was unsuccessful, his work in chairing the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has been decidedly more productive — at least in the instance of getting the IRS to curtail its practice of unannounced visits to taxpayers’ homes.

“The Committee’s and Select Subcommittee’s oversight and investigation of the IRS’s abusive actions yielded real results for the American people,” the committee’s report explained. “The Committee and Select Subcommittee identified how IRS employees abused an IRS policy, and it forced the IRS to reevaluate its policy. Commissioner Werfel stated that ending the policy after decades was ‘the right thing to do and the right time to end it.’ While the policy should have been ended decades ago, taxpayers no longer have to worry the IRS will come knocking on their door without prior notice.”

The report was initiated after journalist Matt Taibbi reported that the federal government’s most despised agency had come to his door back on March 9, which coincidentally was the day he testified before Congress about the Twitter Files. It was allegedly about rejected electronic tax filings in 2018 and 2021, due to concerns of identity theft. But as Anthony Brian Logan asked on our pages a few weeks later, “Did the IRS visit his home out of grave concern or to intimidate him?”

We’ll return to Taibbi in due course, but another incident outlined in the congressional report is cause for even more concern. An unidentified Ohio woman was visited in April of this year by an IRS agent who gave a false name, then proceeded to act in an intimidating manner toward her despite the fact that her taxes were paid in full.

Again, quoting the congressional report: “Agent ‘Haus’ then furnished several documents to the taxpayer for her to complete. Because these documents included sensitive information about the decedent, the taxpayer offered Agent ‘Haus’ the opportunity to speak with her accountant, which he accepted. However, when her accountant did not answer, the taxpayer called her attorney who immediately and repeatedly told Agent ‘Haus’ to leave the taxpayer’s home since the taxpayer had not received any prior notice from the IRS of any issue with the decedent’s estate or delinquent tax returns. Agent ‘Haus’ responded aggressively, insisting, ‘I am an IRS agent, I can be at and go into anyone’s house at any time I want to be.’ At the end of his unannounced visit, Agent ‘Haus’ 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.”

The woman, believing she was being scammed, reached out to her local police, who in turn contacted the IRS only to find that Agent “Haus” was indeed an IRS agent, but using an assumed name. After an investigation revealed the woman had no issues with the agency, an IRS supervisor eventually apologized for the agent’s conduct a month later. No word on whether Agent “Haus” was reprimanded or forced to write out the words of the Fourth Amendment on a chalkboard a hundred times.

While the treatment Taibbi received wasn’t as extreme as the Ohio woman’s, it was more troubling in another respect — that of intimidating an inconvenient government witness. But in both cases, we see that same philosophy of menacing entitlement. No one likes to hear from the IRS, as the situation is often that of having to prove one’s innocence at great cost and heartache.

And Taibbi, whom Power Line’s John Hinderaker calls “one of a group of honest liberals who are not blind to the contemporary Left’s faults,” responded by questioning some of those institutions he once supported. On his Racket News site, Taibbi laments:

Anticipating criticism for expressing public thanks to a Republican congressman, I’d like to ask Democratic Party partisans: to which elected Democrat should I have appealed for help in this matter? The one who called me a “so-called journalist” on the House floor? The one who told me to take off my “tinfoil hat” and put greater trust in intelligence services? The ones in leadership who threatened me with jail time? I gave votes to the party for thirty years. Which elected Democrat would have performed basic constituent services in my case? Feel free to raise a hand. If silence is the answer, why should I ever vote for a Democrat again?“

Of course, the cases outlined in the Jordan report are just two of the most egregious ones, and it’s a fair question to ponder whether any of this would have been discussed if not for the high-profile Taibbi case. It’s likely that the vast majority of incidents were more like that of the Ohio woman, who was fortunate to have her case merit such special attention. How many others who feel they’re compromised simply roll over and sign away their assets and freedom in order to get the government off their back?

Thanks to House Republicans, "most” unannounced home visits from the IRS are now a thing of the past. But that doesn’t mean the agency doesn’t have other unsavory tactics within its bag of dirty tricks. Remember, they’re from the government and they’re here to help.