CHADDS FORD, PA – October 03, 2026 – McCauley Law Offices, P.C., a tax law firm with offices in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Haddonfield, New Jersey and Westminster, Maryland, says taxpayers contacted by a special agent of IRS Criminal Investigation should treat the first 48 hours as the period that shapes the rest of the matter. The firm has set out what a taxpayer should and should not do in that window.
How a Criminal Tax Investigation Reaches the Taxpayer IRS Criminal Investigation is the law enforcement arm of the Internal Revenue Service. According to the agency’s 2025 annual report, it employs roughly 2,000 special agents who are sworn federal law enforcement officers, and in fiscal year 2025 it referred 2,043 cases for prosecution with a conviction rate of 89%.
The IRS states that criminal investigations can begin with information from within the agency, when an auditor, a revenue officer or an investigative analyst detects possible fraud, as well as from the public and from other law enforcement agencies. Once a case is opened, the IRS describes techniques that include interviews of third-party witnesses, surveillance, search warrants and subpoenas for bank records. By the time a special agent contacts the taxpayer, the investigation may already be well developed…