The Internal Revenue Service announced it will no longer send agents on unannounced visits to taxpayers suspected of shorting their tax payments, citing increased hostility and risk to their employees thanks to violent rhetoric against the agency led by Congressional Republicans.
The Washington Post notes that for decades, IRS agents would make tens of thousands of visits to the homes of people who have not responded to IRS outreach regarding misfiled, unfiled or past due accounts. The agency says it will now cut those down to a few hundred per year, basing the need on the urgency and outstanding amount of the debt.
The policy switch comes as the Biden Administration shifts the focus of the agency from harassing middle-class taxpayers to concentrating on the massive unpaid taxes of the wealthiest Americans. The Treasury Department set plans to hire more than 80,000 new employees over the next decade, with most focusing on customer service and administrative personnel, not enforcement agents as Republicans had characterized the entire lot of new hires.