According to the Washington Post, the number of threats being made against Internal Revenue Service employees has been rapidly climbing since the incident last month when a plane flew into an IRS office. The pilot and one IRS employee died in the crash, and since then the IRS has investigated more then 70 reported instances of a threats being made by taxpayers to IRS workers.
Workers have received a mix of inappropriate verbal comments -- including jokes or statements of support for pilot A. Joseph Stack -- and more serious threats, claimed National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley.
Kelley said she learned of the threats from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which tracks threats against IRS workers. Neither TIGTA nor the IRS would confirm the number of threats or share details of the probe.
"TIGTA is actively and aggressively investigating all threats made against IRS employees, infrastructure and property," said J. Russell George, the treasury inspector general for tax administration. His office and the IRS have instructed workers to report threats immediately. "It would be a little naive to think that we don't get some threats over the course of doing business," said IRS Communications Director Terry Lemons.
