IRS takes steps to protect identity of workers in effort to deter personal threats

By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is taking steps to protect the identity of its workers in an effort to deter personal threats aimed at the tax agency’s employees. The IRS says it’ll start limiting workers’ personal identifying information on communications with taxpayers. The change begins next month. The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration said in a report this week that it was “concerned that taxpayers and anti-government or anti-tax groups with malevolent intent” could use the internet or social media to track down and harass IRS workers and their families. The IRS says it’ll remove workers’ first names from communications, leaving their last names and respective Mr., Ms., or a gender-neutral title. Phone numbers will still be included in communications.