Unannounced IRS revenue officer visits discontinued

To reduce public confusion and enhance overall safety measures for taxpayers and employees, the IRS recently announced a major policy change that will end most unannounced visits to taxpayers by agency revenue officers.

The change reverses a decades-long practice by IRS revenue officers, the unarmed agency employees whose duties include visiting households and businesses to help taxpayers resolve their account balances by collecting unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. Unannounced visits will end except in a few unique circumstances and will be replaced with mailed letters to schedule meetings.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel announced the change as part of a larger effort to transform IRS operations following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the creation of the new IRS Strategic Operating Plan in April 2023.

Unannounced visits to homes and businesses presented risks. Revenue officers routinely faced hazards and uncertainty making unannounced visits to attempt to resolve delinquent tax matters.

In place of the unannounced visits, revenue officers will make contact with taxpayers through an appointment letter, known as a 725-B, and schedule a follow-up meeting. This will help taxpayers feel more prepared when it is time to meet. Taxpayers whose cases are assigned to a revenue officer will now be able to schedule face-to-face meetings at a set place and time, with the necessary information and documents in hand to reach resolution of their cases more quickly and eliminate the burden of multiple future meetings.

The IRS noted there will still be extremely limited situations where unannounced visits will occur. These rare instances include service of summonses and subpoenas; and also sensitive enforcement activities involving seizure of assets, especially those at risk of being placed beyond the reach of the government. To put this in perspective, these types of situations typically number less than a few hundred each year, a small fraction compared to the tens of thousands of unannounced visits that typically occurred annually under the old policy.

The IRS will be updating IRS.gov and internal guidance in the months ahead.

Editor’s note: Browse the Intuit® Tax Pro Center’s IRS News page on a regular basis for more information.