To safeguard worker safety and combat scammers, the IRS is ceasing unannounced visits to taxpayers

In an effort to protect the safety of its employees and combat con artists posing as IRS agents, the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday that it is halting its long-standing policy of making unauthorized home and business visits.

With immediate effect, revenue agents won’t call on taxpayers’ homes or places of business “except in a few unique circumstances,” according to a statement from the Treasury Department.

Instead, the organization will mail letters to individuals to plan meetings. “Today’s announcement is the right thing to do at the right time,” new IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told reporters on a call on Monday.

The decision reverses a practice by revenue officers, whose duties include going to people’s homes and places of business to collect unpaid taxes and incomplete tax forms, and puts an end to “an era at the IRS,” he added.

More threats have been made against the agency in recent years, in part because of rumors that agents will pursue middle-class taxpayers more aggressively after the passing of a climate, health care, and tax measure that included $80 billion to increase tax collections.

In response, the organization declared a thorough investigation of safety at its locations last August.

The organization also announced in May that it would start limiting the use of employees’ personal identifying information in discussions with taxpayers.

In a report, the inspector general for tax administration at the Treasury Department expressed concern that “taxpayers and anti-tax or anti-government groups with malicious intent may use the Internet or social media to track down and identify IRS employees, their families, their homes, and personal information to threaten, intimidate, or locate them for physical violence.

The IRS received praise from the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, for ceasing surprise visits. According to a statement from union president Tony Reardon provided via email, “the officers we represent will continue to efficiently and effectively carry out their mission of assisting taxpayers meet their lawful tax obligations.”

This year, the topic of house visits has generated political controversy. In March, Ohio House Republican Jim Jordan wrote to Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to inquire as to why writer Matt Taibbi had an IRS agent pay him an unexpected house visit just before he testified on Capitol Hill about his investigation into Twitter data.

Werfel stated that he believes “the concerns highlighted by unexpected visits, especially those that the U.S.

The organization claimed that confusion over unexpected house inspections had also been brought on by an increase in con artists posing as IRS agents.