It usually happens early in the morning or right at the end of the day. Two people in business clothes. Badges. "We're special agents with IRS Criminal Investigation. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"
Most people talk. They assume cooperating will make it go away. It does not work that way. The visit is planned, the questions are planned, and the answers become part of the record.
This guide is general information about what that visit is and how the law treats it. It is not a script for avoiding anything. The point is simple: before you answer questions from criminal investigators, get a lawyer.
Why they come in person
Special agents are criminal investigators. IRM 9.1.1.2 describes CI's mission as investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes. The first interview of a subject is valuable to them because people say things in the first five minutes that they would never say with counsel in the room.
The CI manual tells agents how to prepare. IRM 9.4.5 covers interviews in detail: determining the interview's purpose, preparing an outline, reviewing available information, and organizing the interview file before anyone knocks. When the agents arrive, they usually know a great deal already. They are often there to lock in your story, test it against records they have, and collect admissions.
The IRS manual on methods of proof is blunt about this. In net worth cases, IRM 9.5.9.5.9.2 notes that admissions by the subject about cash on hand "are most effective" and "should be obtained during the initial interview or early in the investigation." That is the agency's own guidance on what that first conversation is for.
How you will know they are special agents
Civil IRS employees, revenue agents and revenue officers, conduct audits and collect tax. Special agents work for Criminal Investigation. They identify themselves and show credentials, and the CI manual expects the record of the interview to reflect how the agents identified themselves.
The bigger tell is the rights statement. IRM 9.4.5 directs special agents to advise the subject of an investigation of constitutional rights in a non-custodial interview. The manual gives the language. In substance, the agent says that under the Fifth Amendment they cannot compel you to answer questions or submit information that might tend to incriminate you, that anything you say and any documents you submit may be used against you in a criminal proceeding, and that you may seek the assistance of an attorney before responding.
If you hear that, the agency has told you what kind of case this is.
You do not have to talk
You are not required to answer a special agent's questions. The rights statement says so. You can say, politely, that you will not answer questions without a lawyer, and that your lawyer will contact them.
That is not obstruction. It is not rude. It is the exercise of a constitutional right that the agents themselves just described to you.
Two cautions come straight from the IRS's own manual:
- Silence has to be claimed. IRM 9.4.5 explains that the privilege against self-incrimination must be specifically claimed or it may be considered waived, and that spontaneous or volunteered statements are not barred by the Fifth Amendment. If you start explaining, you are not invoking anything.
- Corporate records are different. The same section tells agents that a custodian of corporate records is required to produce those records because Fifth Amendment rights do not apply to a corporation and its records. The personal privilege protects you, not the company's files.
Do not lie, and do not tidy up
Two things turn a bad situation into a much worse one.
The first is a false statement. Under 18 U.S.C. 1001, knowingly and willfully making a materially false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch is a separate federal crime carrying up to 5 years of imprisonment. Saying "I'd rather talk to my lawyer first" is not a false statement. Inventing a story to make the agents leave can be.
The second is destroying or altering records. IRC 7212(a) makes it a crime to corruptly obstruct or impede the due administration of the tax laws. The Supreme Court in Marinello v. United States, 584 U.S. 1 (2018), held that the government must show a connection to a pending tax proceeding, such as a particular investigation or audit, or one the defendant could reasonably foresee. Once agents have knocked on your door, that proceeding is not hypothetical. See obstruction under section 7212(a).
The IRS fraud manual lists "destruction of books and records, especially if just after examination was started" among indicators of fraud in IRM 25.1.2.3. Shredding after a visit is evidence. Keep everything.
What to do, step by step
This is general information, not advice for your case. But the shape of a sensible response does not change much:
- Be courteous. Agents are doing a job. Hostility helps no one.
- Ask for their names and business cards.
- Tell them you will not answer questions without counsel and that your lawyer will contact them.
- Do not consent to a search you are not legally required to allow. If they have a warrant, do not interfere with its execution. Read IRS-CI search warrants.
- Do not call your accountant, your business partner, or your ex to talk it over. Those conversations are generally not privileged and those people may become witnesses.
- Call a lawyer the same day.
Why your accountant is not the first call
People trust their CPA, and they should. But the privilege that protects communications with a federally authorized tax practitioner, IRC 7525, by its terms may be asserted only in noncriminal tax matters before the IRS and noncriminal tax proceedings in federal court. When CI is involved, that statutory privilege does not apply.
Your accountant may also be a witness. Agents frequently interview return preparers, because the IRS fraud manual asks examiners to document who prepared the information used for the return in IRM 25.1.2.4.
A lawyer can bring an accountant into the case properly so that the accountant's work supports legal advice. That arrangement is explained in Kovel arrangements and accountant privilege.
What if they also talk to other people?
Usually, they already have or will. The civil third-party contact notice rules in IRC 7602(c) do not apply "with respect to any pending criminal investigation." Agents can interview your bookkeeper, your bank, and your customers without telling you first.
That is one more reason not to try to talk your way through the visit. You do not know what they already have.
What about the civil side of the case?
A criminal investigation does not erase the civil tax. It changes the order of operations. When a revenue agent works alongside a special agent in a joint investigation, IRM 25.1.3.5 says that if the taxpayer files a delinquent or amended return during the investigation, the cooperating examiner must discuss it with the special agent, who decides in writing whether any tax shown should be assessed right away or held so the assessment does not jeopardize the criminal case.
Filing new returns in the middle of a criminal investigation is a legal decision, not a bookkeeping one. Make it with counsel.
What a lawyer does next
A lawyer contacts the agents, finds out what can be learned about the scope of the investigation, and decides with you whether there is any benefit to providing information, and in what form. Sometimes the right answer is silence. Sometimes there is a reason to provide documents through counsel. That decision belongs in a privileged conversation, made with full information, not on your front porch.
If the investigation has already moved to a grand jury, the rules shift again. See grand jury subpoenas in tax investigations.
The bottom line
The visit is designed to get your statement before you have counsel. You have the right to decline. Use it, be polite about it, tell the truth by saying nothing beyond that, keep every record, and call a lawyer before the end of the day.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just answer a few easy questions to seem cooperative?
The CI manual notes that the privilege against self-incrimination must be specifically claimed and that volunteered statements are not protected by it. Easy questions are often the ones that lock in a timeline. The safer course is to decline all questions until you have counsel.
Are special agents allowed to show up without warning?
Yes. Nothing requires advance notice of an interview attempt, and the civil third-party contact notice rules in IRC 7602(c) do not apply to pending criminal investigations.
Will refusing to talk make me look guilty?
Declining to answer is a constitutional right the agents are directed to describe to you. Statements made without counsel are a far bigger risk than a polite refusal.
What if the agents say I am just a witness?
Witness status can change. The CI manual directs agents to advise a witness of their rights if the witness makes statements that tend to incriminate them. If you are being asked about your own conduct, talk to a lawyer first.
General information only, not legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and IRS procedures change; the sources cited were reviewed on the date shown above.