IRS agent used 'fake name' to 'target' Ohio resident during house call

An alleged home visit conducted by an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent that involved "highly concerning" behavior prompted Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan to send an inquiry Friday via letter to the head of the agency. 

The House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government received a report of an IRS agent conducting a field visit allegedly providing an Ohio taxpayer an alias instead of his real name and "using deception to secure entry" into the person’s home, Jordan said in the letter. The incident purportedly occurred in late April in Marion, a city north of Columbus.

The Ohio congressman, who chairs the committee, wrote in the letter addressed to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel that the "allegations raise serious concerns about the IRS’s commitment to fundamental civil liberties."

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The committee has given the IRS until June 30 to hand over certain information about the alleged field visit, including "documents and communications" related to the reasoning for it and relevant ones between government entities. 

When the IRS agent visited the Ohio resident’s home, he allegedly called himself "Bill Haus" — a name later revealed to the Marion Police Department to be an alias. Jordan’s letter claimed the agent initially told the taxpayer that his visit pertained to "issues concerning an estate for which the taxpayer was the fiduciary" and later said it was for a few delinquent tax returns from the person who had died.

The IRS agent allegedly said he "can be at and go into anyone’s house at any time I want to be" after receiving more than one request from the taxpayer’s attorney to exit the home.

"Before finally leaving the taxpayer’s property, Agent ‘Haus’ said he would mail paperwork to the taxpayer, and threatened that she had one week to satisfy the remaining balance or he would freeze all her assets and put a lien on her house," the letter purported.

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Jordan claimed the IRS agent also lodged a complaint with the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration against the MPD officer who had looked into the incident after receiving a call from the taxpayer on concerns of a possible scam. 

In a footnote within the letter, it said the supervisor of the IRS agent told the taxpayer on May 4 that the decedent of the estate "only had one delinquent filing from 2016" and "confirmed the decedent’s 1041 final return was completed and that nothing was due." The Ohio resident received a notice in the mail about the tax filings the following day that she was told to ignore, a written communication that was followed at the end of the month by one about the closure of the case, according to Jordan’s letter.

Jordan also referenced an IRS field visit to journalist Matt Taibbi’s residence in his Friday letter to the IRS. That visit fell on the same date he appeared before Congress to provide testimony, FOX Business previously reported.

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The IRS agent involved in the alleged April incident in Ohio said he was part of the agency’s criminal division, according to Jordan’s letter. The IRS Criminal Investigation unit is tasked with "investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes," the agency’s website said.

The division, which reported having more than 2,000 special agents and nearly 940 professional staff, launched over 2,500 investigations in fiscal 2022, according to the IRS.

FOX Business reached out to the IRS for comment on Jordan’s letter.