My office has received several inquiries about phone calls or voicemail messages received by members of our community that purport to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The callers declare that the recipients owe taxes and threaten legal action in an effort to obtain money or personal information from the recipients. My office is aware of the situation and has been in touch with the IRS regarding these scams.
I wish to assure the public that the IRS does not ordinarily contact a taxpayer by telephone. In those special circumstances in which they do, such calls are preceded by several notices served by postal mail. The IRS does not demand immediate payment of taxes over the phone.
I urge members of the public to educate and protect themselves by visiting the IRS tax scams and consumer alerts webpage (https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scamsconsumer-alerts) and the IRS’s information on how to know that it is really them calling (https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/how-to-know-its-really-the-irs-calling-or-knocking-on-your-door-0) for more information.