Maybe it’s not surprising that in an economic downturn where people are afraid of losing their money, some people who are unstable are taking their frustrations to the next level.
WASHINGTON — Attacks on the Internal Revenue Service and its employees similar to Thursday’s small plane crash in Texas are common, according to federal records and investigations.
“There is a direct correlation between increased IRS enforcement efforts and the number of threats made against IRS employees,” said J. Russell George, who heads the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. His office handled more than 1,200 threat and assault case referrals from the IRS and its employees between fiscal 2001 and 2008. The cases resulted in more than 167 indictments and at least 195 convictions, he said.
The nation’s economic downturn and Americans’ frustrations with their civic responsibilities have inspired many of the incidents, George said. The agency has stepped up enforcement efforts since Commissioner Douglas Shulman took over in 2008.
