The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is investigating the case of an IRS agent who used a fake name and false pretense to gain access to an Ohio taxpayer’s home, Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced Friday.
In a press release, Rep. Jordan reported that he has sent a letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel revealing “new information that an IRS agent visited an Ohio taxpayer on April 25, 2023, using a fake alias and deceptive tactics to secure entry into the taxpayer's home.”
The incident raises concerns that the IRS is abusing the civil liberties of American taxpayers, Jordan explains.
Jordan’s letter to IRS Commissioner Werfel lays out the details of the taxpayer’s ordeal, beginning in April, when an IRS agent using the fake name “Bill Haus,” gained access to an Ohio woman’s home by telling her he was there to discuss issues concerning an estate for which the taxpayer was the fiduciary.
“Haus” told the woman that the estate owed a substantial amount of money. Then, when she showed him proof that she had paid all taxes for the decedent’s estate, “Haus” changed his story and claimed the decedent allegedly had several delinquent tax return filings.
At this point, the woman called her attorney who repeatedly told Agent “Haus” to leave the woman’s house – prompting the agent to respond:
“I am an IRS agent; I can be at and go into anyone’s house at any time I want to be.”
Before leaving “Haus” threatened to freeze all of the woman’s assets and put a lien on her house, if she didn’t pay up.
Worried that she was the victim of a scam, the woman then contacted the Marion, Ohio Police Department (MPD), which used the license plate number of “Haus” to discover his true identity. MPD verified that he was, indeed, an IRS agent who had used a fake name to gain entry into the woman’s house and harass her. MPD warned “Haus” that he would be arrested, if he returned to the woman’s house.
The taxpayer met with the IRS supervisor, who assured her that nothing was owned. But, the next day, the woman received a letter from the IRS claiming that several tax returns were delinquent.
Finally, after speaking with the supervisor again, the woman received a letter from the IRS saying that the case had been closed.
The woman’s troubling IRS ordeal is not an isolated incident, Chairman Jordan says in his letter, explaining that his committee is currently looking into another suspicious, unannounced visit by an IRS that may have been an effort to intimidate a whistleblower who was about to testify before Congress:
“On March 27, 2023, the Committee previously wrote to you and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about an IRS agent visiting—unannounced and unprompted—the home of journalist Matt Taibbi. Incredibly, at the time of the visit, Mr. Taibbi was testifying before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about how the federal government pressured, coerced, and even directed technology companies to take certain actions related to digital content.
“The Committee is continuing to investigate the IRS’s reasons for visiting Mr. Taibbi’s home and whether the visit was conducted in an attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress.”
Meanwhile, the Biden Administration plans to use $80 billion from the “Inflation Reduction Act” to hire 87,000 more IRS employees - potentially doubling its current staff of about eighty thousand.