According to a job posting on the agency’s website, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to hire special agents who make arrests and carry guns, with jobs opening up in all 50 states.
The Criminal Investigation (CI) division, the law enforcement branch of the IRS, is hiring for the role at locations across the U.S. IRS special agents with the CI division are the only IRS agents lawfully authorized to carry and use firearms. IRS-CI investigates money laundering, terrorist financing efforts, financial crimes, and tax-related identity theft.
Under the “major duties” section of the posting, the IRS says special agents “carry a firearm; must be prepared to protect him/herself or others from physical attacks any time and without warning and use firearms in life-threatening situations; must be willing to use force up to and including the use of deadly force.”
In addition, IRS-CI special agents must be “willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments.” The posting says special agents must also keep “a level of fitness necessary to respond to life-threatening situations on the job effectively.”
Applicants must meet several other requirements
Jobseekers must also meet several other requirements, including being between the age of 21 at the time of completing the training academy and 37 at the time of appointment and having U.S. citizenship.
Potential special agents with the IRS’ Criminal Investigation division must be able to pass pre-employment tax and medical exams, be legally allowed to possess firearms and pass a drug test.
The USAJobs IRS job posting for the role opened in mid-February and will remain open until the end of the year. The posting lists openings in 249 locations nationwide, with 360 vacancies — at least one in each state. CI division IRS special agents can expect a salary between $52,921 and $94,228 annually.
Last year, the IRS faced criticism when a similar job posting went live amid ongoing debate over the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act in Congress. The legislation included $80 billion in increased IRS funding over a decade — intended to help the agency crack down on tax evasion.
Similar language related to carrying firearms and using force is listed on other federal law enforcement job postings that involve potentially dangerous situations and fieldwork.
The IRS recently unveiled its long-awaited spending plan for a controversial $80 billion cash infusion. It pledged to hire thousands of new workers to audit big corporations and wealthy Americans.
