IRS is ending unannounced visits to taxpayers to protect worker safety and combat scammers

abcnews.go.com:

The IRS says it is ending its decades-old policy of making unannounced home and business visits — in a an effort to keep its workers safe and combat scammers who pose as IRS agents

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service said Monday it is ending its decades-old policy of making unannounced home and business visits, in an effort to help keep its workers safe and to combat scammers who pose as IRS agents.

Effective immediately, revenue agents will no longer make unplanned visits to taxpayers' homes and businesses “except in a few unique circumstances,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. The agency will instead mail letters to people to schedule meetings.

“Today’s announcement is the right thing to do, at the right time," new IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told reporters on a call Monday.

The change ends «an era at the IRS,” he said, reversing a practice by revenue officers whose duties include visiting homes and firms to resolve taxpayers' liabilities by collecting unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns.

The agency in recent years has experienced more threats, in part tied to conspiracy theories that agents were going to target middle-income taxpayers more aggressively after the passage of a climate, health care and tax bill that provided $80 billion to step up tax collections.

In response, the agency last August announced a comprehensive review of safety at its facilities. And in May, the agency said it would begin limiting workers’ personal identifying information on communications with taxpayers.

The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration said in a report that it was “concerned that taxpayers and anti-government or anti-tax groups with malevolent intent may use the Internet or social