The IRS is visiting delinquent taxpayers

If you haven’t filed your taxes for any of your previous year's tax returns or resolved your tax issues, it’s important to take action to avoid the stress of having the IRS show up at your door.

Additionally, if you want to avoid an audit, it’s best to avoid doing anything that will get attention from the IRS.

As part of a larger effort to ensure compliance and fairness, the Internal Revenue Service has announced that it will step up efforts to visit taxpayers who, in prior years, have failed to timely file one or more of their tax returns.

"The IRS is committed to fairness in the tax system, and we want to remind people across all income categories that they need to file their taxes," said Paul Mamo, Director of Collection Operations, Small Business/Self Employed Division.  "These visits focusing on high-income taxpayers will be taking place across the country.  We want to ensure taxpayers know their options to get right with their taxes and avoid bigger issues later."

"Taxpayers having delinquent filing or payment obligations should consult a competent tax advisor before waiting to be contacted by an IRS revenue officer,” Mamo said.  "It is always worthwhile to take advantage of various methods of getting back into filing or payment compliance before being personally contacted by the IRS."

Following the recent and ongoing hiring of additional enforcement personnel, IRS revenue officers across the country will increase face-to-face visits with high-income taxpayers who haven't filed tax returns in 2018 or previous years.  These visits are primarily aimed at informing these taxpayers of their tax filing and paying obligations and bringing these taxpayers into compliance.

For the new visits taking place, high-income non-filers taxpayers are those who generally received income in excess of $100,000 during a tax year and did not file a tax return with the IRS.  Taxpayers who exercise their best efforts in filing their tax returns and paying or entering into agreements to pay their taxes deserve to know that the IRS is aggressively pursuing others who have failed to satisfy their filing and payment obligations.

During the visits, IRS revenue officers will share information and work with the taxpayer to hopefully resolve the tax issue.  However, it is not the IRS revenue officer’s job to look out for the best interest of the taxpayer.  If you have tax issues, a competent licensed tax professional will be able to advise you on what actions you may need to take.

David Zubler is a tax accountant and an Enrolled Agent in East Tennessee, the author of four books, and a philanthropist.  All of his proceeds from the books go to a charitable foundation he created for underprivileged children.  He is also the founder of Your Tax Care which provides tax education. David can be reached for questions and consultation at yourtaxcare.com.