IRS agent ‘used a fake name’ to ‘target’ Ohio woman: Republicans demand answers

Republicans are demanding an explanation from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after an Ohio taxpayer revealed that an IRS agent used a fake name and other “deceptive tactics” to get into her home.

Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, R-Ohio, sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Werfel last week asking for details about the “bizarre” incident that happened in late April.

An IRS agent, who identified himself as “Bill Haus” with the bureau’s criminal division, unexpectedly showed up at a taxpayer’s home in Marion, Ohio on April 25 — beginning a series of unusual events.

The taxpayer let Haus into her home after informing her that he was there to “discuss matters relating to an estate for which the taxpayer was the fiduciary.” However, she had not received any notice from the IRS prior to the visit.

Once inside, the agent revealed that the “true purpose” of his visit was unrelated to the estate, but that she reportedly had “several delinquent tax returns.”

As a result, the Ohio woman called her attorney, who immediately asked the agent to leave, but Haus responded “aggressively, insisting “I’m an IRS agent, I can be at someone’s house at any time and go in.” to go.

After Haus left, the woman contacted Marion police to determine if the visit was a “scam,” who, after checking his car’s license plates, determined that the officer was using a false name — but he was a legitimate IRS agent.

“This conduct of an IRS agent toward a U.S. taxpayer — providing an alias, using deceit to secure entry into the taxpayer’s home, then filing an Inspector General complaint against a police officer investigating this case – is deeply concerning,” Jordan said in the letter obtained by DailyMail.com.

The officer apparently filed an Inspector General complaint against the Marion Police Department for investigation of him.

The taxpayer also spoke to Haus’s supervisor after the incident, who clarified that she owed nothing on the estate and admitted that “it should never have come this far” with the visit.

The strange April incident comes as Jordan, who also heads the House government’s “armaments” committee, investigated another case of IRS overreach related to a journalist who testified before the committee.

Jordan investigates an IRS agent’s previous “unannounced home visit” to journalist Matt Taibbi’s residence.

Taibbi has most recently become known for his work on the ‘Twitter Spaces’ platform, where he published internal communications between the social media company and government officials and exposed the coordination of voice censorship.

According to Taibbi, an IRS agent showed up at his New Jersey home on March 9, the same day he testified before the armaments commission.

Jordan has insisted that if the IRS has an audit of a tax return or seeks additional information on a taxpayer or preparer, it “doesn’t drop by unannounced.”

In addition, the bureau certainly does not arrange ‘surprise house calls’, says the chairman.

The select subcommittee’s spotlight on the plight of Ohio’s taxpayers is an escalation of the ongoing investigation, which began with Taibbi.

In the recent debt ceiling agreement approved by the House and Senate last month, Congress voted to reclaim funding from the IRS — including its army of agents.

Negotiators agreed to two annual cuts of $10 billion in IRS funding, including an immediate dissolution of $1.4 billion in “non-mandatory balances.”

But some Republicans said it didn’t go far enough to put a dent in the $60 billion that was on the table to hire thousands of new officers and strengthen enforcement.