We have seen for some time how off-the-rails the FBI has become, a danger to a free society. More and more evidence now shows it’s not just the FBI. Every federal employee with a badge and gun seems to think he’s a law unto himself. This week the spotlight is on the IRS, and the Congress has to step up and rein the agency in.

While Matt Taibbi was testifying before Congress on the administration’s extensive censoring of social media content, the IRS appeared at his door, ostensibly to question him about his taxes, but obviously to intimidate him for showing up government censorship.

Mr. Taibbi has told Mr. Jordan’s committee that an IRS agent showed up at his personal residence in New Jersey on March 9. That happens to be the same day Mr. Taibbi testified before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about what he learned about Twitter. The taxman left a note instructing Mr. Taibbi to call the IRS four days later. Mr. Taibbi was told in a call with the agent that both his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had been rejected owing to concerns over identity theft.

Mr. Taibbi has provided the committee with documentation showing his 2018 return had been electronically accepted, and he says the IRS never notified him or his accountants of a problem after he filed that 2018 return more than four-and-a-half years ago. 

He says the IRS initially rejected his 2021 return, which he later refiled, and it was rejected again -- even though Mr. Taibbi says his accountants refiled it with an IRS-provided pin number. Mr. Taibbi notes that in neither case was the issue “monetary,” and that the IRS owes him a “considerable” sum.

The bigger question is when did the IRS start to dispatch agents for surprise house calls? Typically, when the IRS challenges some part of a tax return, it sends a dunning letter. Or it might seek more information from the taxpayer or tax preparer. If the IRS wants to audit a return, it schedules a meeting at the agent’s office. It doesn’t drop by unannounced. 

But that was just the beginning of a series of outrageous actions.

As Congressman Jim Jordan detailed in a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel this week:

We have recently received allegations that an Internal Revenue Service Agent provided a false name to an Ohio taxpayer as part of a deception to gain entry into the taxpayer’s home to confront her about delinquent tax filings. When the taxpayer rightfully objected to the agent’s tactics, the IRS agent insisted that he “can …go into anyone’s house at any time” as an IRS agent.” 

The Wall Street Journal provides more details of this civil rights intrusion. The taxpayer was a fiduciary for an estate:

Mr. Haus claimed she had not properly filled out estate forms and owed the IRS “a substantial amount.” Only when the taxpayer presented proof of paying all taxes on the estate did the agent reveal that his visit wasn’t about the estate at all. It was about several supposed delinquent tax returns related to the decedent of the estate.

The letter says the taxpayer called her attorney, who insisted Mr. Haus leave the house, only to be told by Mr. Haus: “I am an IRS agent, I can be at and go into anyone’s house at any time I want to be.” Mr. Haus finally left, but not before threatening to freeze the taxpayer’s assets and put a lien on her house if she didn’t satisfy the balance in a week. Fearing a scam, she called the local police, who ran Mr. Haus’s license plate to verify his identity.

When an officer called Mr. Haus, Mr. Haus identified himself as an IRS agent but said Haus wasn’t his real name. He had used an alias. The officer, also suspecting a scam, warned that if he returned to the taxpayer’s home he’d be arrested. Mr. Haus then filed a complaint against the Marion police officer with the Treasury Department inspector general. 

The House letter says the taxpayer on May 4 spoke with Mr. Haus’s supervisor, who clarified that she owed nothing and said -- in the understatement of the year -- that “things never should have gotten this far.” Yet the following day, the taxpayer received a letter -- addressed to the decedent -- stating that the decedent was delinquent on several 1040 filings. This was the first and only mail notification the taxpayer received. The taxpayer was again told by the supervisor that nothing was owed and was notified on May 30 that the case was closed.

If true, this is something else. An agent of the Treasury, wielding the power of tax enforcement, shows up unannounced at a taxpayer’s home. He lies about his identity and his purpose to get inside, then threatens the taxpayer with punishment if she doesn’t pay a tax bill that she doesn’t owe. The IRS agent leaves only after an intervention by her lawyer, and when local police call the agent, he sics the Treasury Department on the officer. 

The overreach by armed IRS agents didn’t stop after these two incidents. Twenty armed IRS agents raided a gun store in Great Falls, Montana, earlier this week. The owner reports that these agents confiscated all the 4473 forms, none of which contain any financial information. David Paulides tweeted: “20 armed IRS agents raided his store in Great Falls earlier this week. Tom [the shop owner] informed me that these agents confiscated all the 4473 forms, none of which contain any financial information; instead, the IRS now has access to these forms with sensitive personal details of every customer who purchased a firearm from Highwood Creek Outfitters.”

Does any of this bother you? The debt deal on the Inflation Reduction Act did cut $21 billion out of the IRS’ $80 billion budget, but did not reduce or eliminate the Administration’s plan to hire 87,000 more of these armed, over-the-top Fearless Fosdicks. Forbes dismissed the objections to retaining this expense.

“The Inflation Reduction Act past [sic] last year, gave the IRS billions to go into what the Wall Street Journal at the time called “beast mode.” That law was doling out about $80 billion to the IRS for increased enforcement, operational improvements, customer service, and systems modernization. That stands at more than six times the 2022 annual IRS budget of $12.6 billion. Of the $80 billion, a whopping $45.6 billion was for enforcement. Earlier reports had suggested that the IRS would hire 87,000 new agents. Unfortunately, the ‘87,000 new IRS agents’ line because [sic] a rallying cry for some groups, and some of those lines may resurface again now.”

You can bet those massive new hires will remain a rallying cry.