Last August, the socialist-style economic plan put out by the Democrats allotted billions of tax dollars to support the growth of the Internal Revenue Service’s staff, was approved by the Senate.
The $750 billion “Inflation Reduction Act” (H.R. 5376) passed the House and was signed by Joe Biden. The IRS received $80 billion. The amount was a 600 percent increase over the $12.6 billion the bureau received in 2021.
The reconciliation plan allowed an extra 87,000 personnel, doubling the IRS’s present headcount from 78,661 to 165,661. That meant the IRS would surpass the combined workforces of the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol, which total 158,779.
“The Pentagon houses roughly 27,000 employees, according to the Defense Department, while a human resources fact sheet says the State Department employs just over 77,243 staff. The FBI employs approximately 35,000 people, according to the agency’s website, and Customs and Border Protection says it employs 19,536 Border Patrol agents,” the Washington Free Beacon reported at the time.
Today, according to a job posting on the IRS website, the agency is still looking to hire “special agents” or criminal investigators in each of the 50 states who are armed and have the authority to make arrests.
The IRS website states in all capital letters, “WE’RE HIRING SPECIAL AGENTS NOW!”
“As a Special Agent you will combine your accounting skills with law enforcement skills to investigate financial crimes. Special Agents are duly sworn law enforcement officers who are trained to “follow the money.” No matter what the source, all income earned, both legal and illegal, has the potential of becoming involved in crimes which fall within the investigative jurisdiction of the IRS Criminal Investigation. Because of the expertise required to conduct these complex financial investigations, IRS Special Agents are considered the premier financial investigators for the Federal government,” the IRS posting reads.
The “Major Duties:” are listed below.
- Adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially in maintaining honesty and integrity.
- Work a minimum of 50 hours per week, which may include irregular hours, and be on-call 24/7, including holidays and weekends.
- Maintain a level of fitness necessary to effectively respond to life-threatening situations on the job.
- Be willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments.
- Carry a firearm; must be prepared to protect him/herself or others from physical attacks at any time and without warning and use firearms in life-threatening situations; must be willing to use force up to and including the use of deadly force.
In 249 locations across the nation, the agency is reportedly hiring at least 360 armed agents, per the job posting.
The position was advertised on USAJobs by the IRS in the middle of February, and it will remain open until the end of the calendar year.
Special agents with the IRS CI make between $52,921 and $94,228 per year.
The agency refers to armed tax enforcement agents as “gun-toters,” according to former IRS Special Agent Robert Nordlander. Considering the unofficial title and manner of operation, one would think Democrat anti-gun activists would support not using gun-toting law enforcement agents who are simply responsible for enforcing parts of the tax code in which violations amount to crimes.
What’s worse, is that in some liberal states or cities, like New York, violent criminals such as murderers and rapists are being set free on no bail, with new soft-on-crime policies Soros-led District Attorneys are taking, specifically, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. However, the rules of enforcement are far different when it comes to the government getting its money.
According to the IRS-CI’s annual report, there were roughly 2,077 special agents in the criminal investigations unit as of the 2022 budget year, which represents around 2.6 percent of the IRS’s entire workforce.
Early in April of this year Daniel Werfel, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), revealed the federal agency’s plans for hiring armed enforcement agents. Werfel says that the IRS intends to hire armed agents to serve in its criminal investigations division after the Republican-led House forced the agency to put its plan of hiring 87,000 new agents on pause earlier this year.
Republican legislators are concerned about a proliferation of gun-wielding tax enforcers.
According to Werfel, in a phone call with reporters, the number of employees who belong to the IRS Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) unit will not increase above the current level. Approximately 2.6 percent of the IRS’s overall workforce is employed by IRS-CI. Adding to that sentiment, Werfel insists that there are “no plans to increase” the hiring rate at the IRS-CI unit. “That will stay at its current rate.”
As part of its role, the IRS-CI investigates potential criminal activity related to tax crimes and provides recommendations to the Department of Justice’s tax division on whether prosecution should be pursued.
As part of their duties, the agents in the criminal investigations division are authorized to carry guns and use lethal force when necessary.
After the Democrats passed the $700+ billion spending bill during the financial crisis with inflation at 9.1% last year, the IRS was heavily criticized after the same announcement was published on its official site.
