As tax return season kicks up, an Elizabethton man told police he received a scam phone call from someone claiming to represent the Internal Revenue Service.

On Wednesday morning, Rudolf Angelmaier met with Elizabethton Police Department Officer Kenneth Lowe to report a suspicious phone call he had received earlier that day from a person claiming to be an IRS agent.

“Mr. Angelmaier said the caller told him he would need to pay the IRS an $850 document fee or he would not receive his tax return this year,” Lowe said. “Mr. Angelmaier said he laughed and told the caller he wasn’t going to pay. Mr. Angelmaier said the caller became upset and told him he would burn his residence down.”

Tax scams and callers pretending to be tax agents are not uncommon, according to the IRS.

The IRS website provides this caution for consumers:

“Note that the IRS will never: 1) call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill; 2) demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe; 3) require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card; 4) ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone; 5) or threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.”