An IRS agent admitted to using a fake name to access someone’s home in order to collect taxes that had already been paid. Now, the House Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government want to investigate. Members said the incident raises questions about the IRS’s commitment to civil liberties.
Here are the facts
According to the committees’ Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on April 25, 2023, an IRS agent claiming to be Bill Haus with the IRS Criminal Division knocked on a taxpayer’s door in Marion, Ohio. The man was a real IRS agent, but the name Bill Haus was an alias.
He said he was there to ensure all the taxes had been paid on the estate of relative who had recently died. He even shared sensitive information about the case with the resident that only an IRS agent would know.
The taxpayer called their lawyer who asked the agent to leave. According to a letter from Chairman Jordan to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, the fake agent told the lawyer, “I am an IRS agent, I can be at and go into anyone’s house at any time I want to be.”
The agent eventually left. But according to the letter, on his way out the door, he told the taxpayer they had one week to pay back taxes or he’d freeze their assets and put a lien on their home.
The taxpayer called the local police who ran a license plate check on the agent’s car. They figured out that the imposter used an alias, and he admitted it when confronted. According to Jordan, the agent’s supervisor got involved and the ordeal ended with a letter from the IRS to the taxpayer stating the case was closed.
What the committees want
Chairman Jordan wants the IRS to hand over documents and communications related to the field visit between the IRS, Treasury Department and agent.
“This behavior from an IRS agent to an American taxpayer—providing an alias, using deception to secure entry into the taxpayer’s home, and then filing an Inspector General complaint against a police officer examining that matter—is highly concerning,” Jordan wrote in the letter to Commissioner Werfel.
Jordan requested that the materials be handed over by Friday, June 30.
