US Tax Agency Launching Safety Review Amid Growing Number of Threats - Reports

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The Internal Revenue Service of the United States (IRS) will launch a full risk assessment in all its facilities in response to the growing number of threats to its employees, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing Commissioner Charles Rettig’s letter to employees.

IRS will be launching a full safety review of each of its 600 facilities nationwide to decide whether the existing risk warrants increasing security patrols along building exteriors, boosting designations for restricted areas, examining security around entrances, and even assessing exterior lighting, the letter reportedly said.

Rettig claims that congressional Republicans and far-right extremists are threatening agency staff for the new major funding it is supposed to receive as part of a massive spending bill, according to the report.

The aggressive rhetoric of the far right has raised fear among IRS workers who are afraid they can be targeted in their workplaces or in public if identified as IRS employees, the report said.

"We see what’s out there in terms of social media. Our workforce is concerned about their safety," Rettig told the newspaper. "The comments being made are extremely disrespectful to the agency, to the employees, and to the country."

IRS is expected to receive $80 billion in funding over the next 10 years as part of US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration believes that the additional funding will facilitate IRS’s scrutiny of tax evasion and increase enforcement on high-income earners and major corporations in a bid to make up for more than a decade of IRS being underfunded, the report said.