IRS does not file lawsuits. Court action, if any is handled by the DOJ and all parties are entitled to legal assistance if it is a criminal matter. But--tax disputes are for the most part civil matters. 90% of all IRS tax disputes are settled administratively. IRS has absolutely no authority to call on local law enforcement for anything. Local law is never involved in IRS tax disputes. It has no powers of arrest. If LE is necessary, US Marshals do the job. IRS does not cold call anyone and ask for money. IRS does not accept Green card money paks for payment in any case. No one is prosecuted for ordinary tax disputes. IRS has absolutely no authority over anyone's professional license. Professional licensing is handled by state governments. Yes, levies on property to satisfy an existing tax obligation do occur, but only after a very long period of negotiation. And yes, liens are placed on individuals but usually after a lot of negotiation and a failure to reach a settlement. All determinations of tax liability are subject to appeals. All contacts by the IRS are initiated by US mail.
This is a Pakistan or India based IRS scam. Do not fall for it. The IRS does not initiate any legal action via phone.
Read http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2014-03.htm
As general background information, here are a few things you can do:
1) Report it to TIGTA under http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml especially if you have become a victim (lost money, gave personal information etc.). You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov/complaint (include “IRS Telephone Scam" in your complaint). This way you can also help the government establish specific fraud patterns.
2) Help kill their phone lines but not by calling them back directly (the number may be spoofed and repeat calls by you may - under exceptional circumstances- amount to harassment). The scammers use Voice over IP lines (e.g. magicJack (Ymax corporation)) to make it seem as if they are calling from the US. This is always against these companys' terms of service and can lead to immediate termination of their contract and blocking of their IP addresses for future attempts to register. Do a reverse look up of their telephone number (e.g. www.whitepages.com) to identify the Voice over IP provider and report it to the company and/or law enforcement (local police and/or state attorney general)
3) If you are really annoyed: call or write to your representative in Congress. As these scams happen all over the country maybe this will trigger a reaction and provide US law enforcement agencies with the political backing and the resources they need to work in India and Pakistan together with local authorities (it can happen, read: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ex-call-cen ... mmission-320427). A US task force has already been set up in Jamaica to nab scammers there (see http://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/library/reports/cornerstone/cornerstone7-1.pdf). You can use the following template for your letter (more powerful!) or email:
IRS Scammer from phone 202-241-1011 left message three times on my answering machine saying that I have a tax lien and that they will issue a warrant for my arrest unless I call them. This is bogus because the IRS always notifies people by mail first and will not accept payment over the phone. I attempted to file a compliant but the message machine with the Treasury Department is full. Apparently they are quite busy with trying to tackle this problem