Jordan Questions TIGTA on IRS Agent Misconduct

May 13, 2024

Ms. Heather M. Hill
Acting Inspector General
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
901 D Street, SW
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20024

Dear Acting Inspector General Hill:

The Committee on the Judiciary and the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are continuing their investigation into the weaponization of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On October 27, 2023, the Committee and the Subcommittee released a report detailing how the IRS weaponized unannounced field visits to harass, target, and intimidate taxpayers — both the prominent and ordinary alike.¹ Our oversight into this abuse led the IRS to repeal its decades-long policy of permitting agents to conduct unannounced field visits.² We write to understand what the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is doing in response to this misconduct.

Our report detailed an egregious example where, without prior notice, an IRS revenue officer conducted an unannounced field visit at the home of an Ohio taxpayer.³ The officer used an alias and deceived the taxpayer about his purposes for appearing at her home.⁴ When the taxpayer's attorney demanded the revenue officer immediately leave, he defiantly stated, “I am an IRS agent, I can be at and go into anyone's house at any time I want to be.”⁵ The revenue officer then threatened to put a lien on the taxpayer's home and freeze her assets if she did not immediately give the IRS a substantial amount of money — even though the IRS later confirmed that the taxpayer owed nothing.⁶ The agent's supervisor admitted that the situation “never should have gotten this far.”⁷

Recent litigation has exposed another example of misconduct where IRS employees and agency counsel willfully submitted falsified tax forms to the United States Tax Court and then lied about it to levy $15 million in penalties.⁸ The misconduct was only revealed through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which exposed how IRS personnel deceptively backdated the approval date of the penalties by four-and-a-half months to make it appear the agency met the deadline.⁹ The Tax Court ultimately sanctioned the IRS for acting in bad faith,¹⁰ which led the IRS to settle the case and forego the assessed penalties.¹¹ This litigation uncovered a concerning pattern of IRS personnel similarly abusing their power in other cases.¹²

We understand that TIGTA is examining these instances of misconduct. To assist the Committee's and Subcommittee's oversight, we ask that you provide all relevant documents and information concerning the findings and recommendations of TIGTA's investigations, including any reports, of the following IRS personnel:

Please produce this material as soon as possible but no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 27, 2024. The Committee believes that the information requested does not require TIGTA to disclose taxpayer information protected from disclosure under 26 U.S.C. §6103. To the extent that the requested materials require the production of such material, however, the Committee requests that it be redacted to protect confidential taxpayer information.

Pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee on the Judiciary has jurisdiction to conduct oversight of matters concerning “civil liberties” to inform potential legislative reforms.¹³ In addition, H. Res. 12 authorizes the Committee's Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to investigate “issues related to the violation of the civil liberties of citizens of the United States.”¹⁴

If you have any questions about this matter, please contact Committee staff at (202) 225-6906. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Jim Jordan
Chairman

cc:
The Honorable Jerrold L. Nadler, Ranking Member