The IRS Criminal Investigations Division, as documented in its annual report, successfully pursued cases involving a total of $2.3 billion worth of tax fraud over the course of 1,598 investigations in fiscal year 2020. Of these, prosecution was recommended for 945 and, of those, 593 resulted in a sentence. The agency was also busy on nontax crimes such as money laundering, having participated in 998 investigations, of which 914 were recommended for prosecution; of those, 633 resulted in a sentence.

The report shows an overall increase in the number of investigations, though some areas were emphasized more than others. The agency has significantly increased its focus on abusive tax schemes, going from 69 last year to 109 this year; financial institution fraud, going from 37 to 50; and employment tax fraud, going from 250 to 298. Other areas, such as corporate fraud, health care fraud and bank secrecy, stayed more or less the same as last year. The one area with a marked drop in investigations was abusive preparers: Investigations of tax preparers dropped from 163 to 140.

As it has with many government agencies, the pandemic has affected the division's ability to perform its mission. Bloomberg noted that, among other measures to protect agents' health and safety, home visits of suspected tax cheats were suspended. Deputy Chief James Robnett, however, said that the division plans to resume, and even expand, these visits once the health crisis recedes enough to allow them (something which likely won't be for a while, given new infections). What's more, he said that these visits will focus mostly on high-income nonfilers (those making more than $100,000 a year), a marked difference from previous enforcement levels. Bloomberg noted that this change in focus could be in response to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report that pointed out that 879,415 high-income individuals who didn’t file returns cumulatively failed to pay $45.7 billion in taxes from 2014 to 2016.