People no longer have to fear IRS agents will drop by unannounced because the agency said Monday it’s ending that practice, effective immediately, to help ensure the safety of its employees and taxpayers. 

The change reverses a decades-long practice by IRS Revenue Officers, the unarmed agency employees whose duties include visiting households and businesses to help taxpayers resolve their account balances by collecting unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. Instead, people will receive mailed letters to schedule meetings, except in a few rare circumstances.  

“These visits created extra anxiety for taxpayers already wary of potential scam artists,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. “At the same time, the uncertainty around what IRS employees faced when visiting these homes created stress for them as well. This is the right thing to do and the right time to end it.” 

Will this hamper IRS tax collection? 

No. With extra money from the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS will have more staff to do compliance work and chase high-income earners avoiding taxes, Werfel said. 

“Improved analytics will also help IRS compliance efforts focus on those with the most serious tax issues,” Werfel said. “We have the tools we need to successfully collect revenue without adding stress with unannounced visits. The only losers with this change in policy are scammers posing as the IRS.” 

The move will also protect IRS employees, who have felt more under attack in recent years. “The safety of IRS employees is of paramount importance and this decision will help protect those whose jobs have only grown more dangerous in recent years because of false, inflammatory rhetoric about the agency and its workforce,” said Tony Reardon, National President of the National Treasury Employees Union. 

IRS scams:You may soon get an IRS letter promising unclaimed tax refunds. It's a scam.

What will happen now? 

If IRS agents need to meet with you, you’ll receive in the mail an appointment letter, known as a 725-B, and schedule a follow-up meeting and allow taxpayers to feel more prepared with necessary documents in hand when it is time to meet. 

This will help taxpayers resolve issues more quickly and eliminate the burden of multiple future meetings, the agency said. 

Only on the rare occasion will IRS agents have to come unannounced. For example, when there's a summons, subpoenas or sensitive enforcement activities involving the seizure of assets, especially those at risk of being placed beyond the reach of the government. To put this in perspective, the IRS said these types of situations typically arise less than a few hundred times each year – a small fraction compared to the tens of thousands of unannounced visits that typically occurred annually under the old policy, it said.

Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.