Most Americans have been trained to be, shall we say, apprehensive about communications with the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS is an extremely powerful government entity with a broad range of authority, but that does not mean that it is as “hands on” as we have been led to believe through a variety of movies and in some cases personal experience.
Yes, the IRS has a lot of authority to collect tax debt, and that authority can lead to property seizure in extreme cases, but for the most part the government agency operates in a fairly straightforward manner. And this almost never involves a telephone call.
The difficulty and the confusion, especially in today’s world, is that merely the mention of the IRS generates a panic and a sense of guilt whether that guilt is deserved or not. Predatory phone scammers especially will contact people and use actual or implied threats to convince people to send money or give up sensitive information that can then be used against the person in question. Especially now in the middle of tax season, telephone and mail scammers are working overtime to cheat Americans out of money. And invoking a “big government” agency like the IRS generates fear in many, and people seldom make good choices when they are afraid.
One thing to remember is that the IRS prefers to contact…
