Taxmen are well-armed.

New report shows that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been stockpiling weapons, ammunition and other combat gear worth $10 million since 2020.

OpenTheBooks, an organization that tracks government expenditures, released findings last week that revealed that the IRS alone spent $5 million in 2021 to beef up its arsenal and equip its agents, who are becoming increasingly militarized.

The IRS spent $2.3M on ammunition since 2020. This includes $1.2M on ballistics shields, $474,000 for Smith & Wesson Rifles, $463,000 for Beretta 1301 tactical shotsguns, and $243,000 body armor vests.

There are a number of other line items that have been spent, including a mysterious $1.3M on “other gear for criminal investigators.”

According to a report, the tax collection agency also purchased tactical lighting, gearbags, holsters for guns, ballistic helmets, and optic sights since the COVID-19 epidemic.

The IRS’s gun lockers were already well stocked before the recent spending spree.

Before 2020, the IRS stockpiled 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition to equip its 2,159 Special Agents.

The agency had 4,500 guns at the time. This included 621 semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, as well as 539 semiautomatic rifles.

According to OpenTheBooks, since 2006, the agency spent $35.2 millions – adjusted for inflation- on weapons, ammo, and military-style gear.

The IRS has also been on a hiring frenzy, with 360 positions available in all 50 US states.

The agency states that applicants must “be willing to carry a firearm, be prepared to defend themselves or others against physical attacks at anytime and without warning; be willing and able to use firearms when life is threatened; and be willing and able to use deadly force if necessary.”

IRS said its special agents were armed as they are consistently involved in organized crime and drug investigations.

As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which he signed last August and totaled $739 billion, President Biden gave the agency more than 80 billion dollars in new funding.

Conservatives claim that the agency needs to raise funds in order to hire 86.852 new workers over the next decade. They argue that the money will be used by the agency to crackdown on low-income and middle-income Americans.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, has referred to the proposed hires by Democrats as “the 87,000 IRS agents army.”