Bloodied by bad press, the IRS promised Monday to reverse course and stop sending officers out to make surprise house calls on American taxpayers.

Commissioner Danny Werfel said the tens of thousands of annual home visits had become a bad look for the tax agency, which is trying to rebrand itself as friendlier to the average taxpayer while getting tougher on the big-dollar tax cheats.

He also said scammers posing as revenue officers had left taxpayers confused, and his employees were increasingly facing thorny situations where they felt unsafe when they were sent out to knock on taxpayers’ doors.

“We are taking a fresh look at how the IRS operates to better serve taxpayers and the nation, and making this change is a common-sense step,” Mr. Werfel said.

The announcement comes after the IRS faced questions for sending someone to knock on the door of journalist Matt Taibbi late last year, on the very day he was testifying to Congress about the government’s use of social media platforms to censor Americans.

According to a congressional investigation, the IRS officer pored over Mr. Taibbi’s voting records and looked into whether he had a concealed weapons permit and a hunting or fishing license before making the house call.

It turned out Mr. Taibbi was able to resolve the issue easily, didn’t owe the IRS anything and in fact was due a “substantial refund,” according to congressional Republicans who probed the incident.

They called it another example of an overbearing tax agency manhandling innocent citizens.

Mr. Werfel insisted Monday that the policy to send officers on home visits is “long-standing” but said the retreat was needed as the IRS tries to regain Americans’ confidence.

Under the new policy, “most” home visits will no longer take place. The only exceptions will be cases where officers are trying to seize assets or serve subpoenas.

The agency said the exceptions will total “less than a few hundred each year.” By contrast, revenue officers currently make “tens of thousands of unannounced visits.”

The policy applies to revenue officers, who are the agency’s debt collectors. They are not armed, and they work alongside revenue agents on civil enforcement to collect what the IRS says is owed.

Instead of house visits, revenue officers will send a letter to schedule an appointment.

“These visits created extra anxiety for taxpayers already wary of potential scam artists,” Mr. Werfel said. “At the same time, the uncertainty around what IRS employees faced when visiting these homes created stress for them as well. This is the right thing to do and the right time to end it.”

The agency counts about 2,300 revenue officers.

The policy does not affect the work of the IRS’ special agents, who are armed investigators and who pursue criminal cases of major tax evasion or money laundering. It was criminal agents who made the case against Hunter Biden.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.