 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news, understanding taxpayer rights, every taxpayer has the right to privacy, understanding taxpayer rights. You know at the last IRS audit the IRS agent informed me that I have the right to remain silent and I was like yeah I understand IRS auditor but you currently have your hand in my pocket and the IRS agent just informed me again more loudly, more forcefully. You have the right to remain silent and I was like yeah but honestly the situation with your hands in my pockets it's making me really uncomfortable. What about my right to privacy and the IRS agent then informed me that I do have a right to privacy. I have the right, the obligation even to keep it just between us but first an attempt at a joke. When I didn't pay my taxes on time the IRS agent spoke actual daggers at me. Which I thought was terrifying. That's going to be terrifying, it should be terrifying. That is until I discovered an even more horrific thing, a celebrity speaking pro-downs at me. Everybody's got a fear of something. Everybody. Suck puppets. This IRS tax tip 2022-127 August 18th 2022. The privacy of America's taxpayers is paramount to the IRS. The right to privacy is one of the ten rights the taxpayer bill of rights gives to all taxpayers. Taxpayers have the right to expect that any IRS inquiry examination or enforcement action will comply with the law and be no more intrusive than necessary. Taxpayers can also expect that the IRS will respect all due process rights including search and seizure protections and will provide where applicable a collection due process hearing. Let's hope this is the case because the last bill that was passed is going to increase the number of IRS agents greatly. So let's hope that they follow due process and so on and so forth as we've seen in all endeavors thus far lately in government processing. But in any case, where are a few more details about what a taxpayer's rights to privacy means? Here's a few more details. The IRS cannot see certain personal items such as school books, clothing and undelivered mail. The IRS cannot see a personal residence without first getting court approval and the agency must show there is no reasonable alternative for collecting the tax debt. So putting someone out of their home is kind of like a last resort for the IRS thankfully I guess. And sometimes taxpayers submit offers to settle their tax debt that relate only to how much they owe. This is formally known as a debt as to liability offer in compromise. So you got the offer in compromise taxpayers who make the offer do not need to submit any financial documentation. So during an audit if the IRS finds no reasonable indication that a taxpayer has unreported income the agency will not seek intrusive and extraneous information about the taxpayers lifestyle. So obviously one of the ways you would think that if someone was under reporting or something like that is you could say hey you live in a mansion or something like that but then obviously that goes down the road of taking tactics that are more intrusive in nature from the IRS. So you can kind of go back and forth on how good or bad that kind of thing is a taxpayer can't expect that the IRS collection actions are no more intrusive than necessary during a collection due process hearing the Office of Appeals must balance that expectation with the IRS proposed collection action and the overall need for efficient tax collection. You can find more information down below at the taxpayer Advocate Service IRS Privacy Policy Private Act of 1974 there's links to that stuff here there'll be links to all this stuff and there'll be a link to this in the description.