IRS and Private debt collectors
This entry was posted on 10/3/2006 10:22 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
From Associated Press (March 2006) - The nation's tax collectors announced Thursday that three companies will help collect unpaid tax debts.
The firms, chosen from 33 applicants, will help the Internal Revenue Service collect money from taxpayers who agree they owe taxes but haven't paid. As much as $7.7 billion in unpaid taxes could be eligible for assignment to a private debt collector, debts the IRS does not have the resources to collect itself.
Congress in 2004 gave the IRS authority to contract debt collection to private companies. The tax agency plans to expand the limited trial, which will begin this summer, to as many as 10 companies in 2008.
IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said many states use private companies to collect unpaid taxes. "Redirecting relatively simple cases to private firms will permit the IRS to focus its existing collection and enforcement personnel on more complex tax issues," he said.
