IRS to Stop Surprise Visits on Taxpayers at Home. What Took So Long?

The Internal Revenue Service announced today its agents will no longer make unannounced visits to taxpayers’ houses.  According to an article in The Washington Post, the policy shift was “meant to protect employees’ safety due to the fear of potentially irate taxpayers answering the door.” 

The article quoted IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel as saying “[t]his is the right thing to do and the right time to end it.  We have the tools we need to successfully collect revenue without adding stress with unannounced visits.”

I think it is a great idea that the IRS is going to stop making unannounced visits on taxpayers at home, but instead of talking about the stress of such visits on IRS agents, which Commissioner Werfel appears to do and The Washington Post definitely does, I would look at the stress on taxpayers. 

Commissioner Werfel says that the IRS has “the tools” to collect taxes without the visits.  If that is only true now, I am appalled it has taken so long.  If the IRS continued to surprise, or worse, taxpayers at home, even though it could collect the taxes without the “visits” (how is that for a nice way of describing it), I am even more appalled  The job of the IRS is to collect taxes through enforcing the Internal Revenue Code, not by scaring the heck out of people by surprising them at their front door.