I.R.S. Enlists Debt Collectors to Recover Overdue Taxes

[SecularMotion]

Source: NY Times

The Internal Revenue Service is about to start using four private debt-collection companies to chase down overdue payments from hundreds of thousands of people who owe money to the federal government, a job it has handled in house for years.

Unlike I.R.S. agents, who are not usually allowed to call delinquent taxpayers by telephone, the outside debt-collection agencies will have free rein to do so. Consumer watchdogs are fearful that some of the nation’s most vulnerable taxpayers will be harassed and that criminals will take advantage of the system by phoning people and impersonating I.R.S. collectors.

Additionally, one of the four companies that the I.R.S. has hired, Pioneer Credit Recovery, a subsidiary of Navient, was effectively fired two years ago by the Education Department from its contract to collect delinquent debt for misleading borrowers about their loans at what the department called “unacceptably high rates.”

Proponents of the plan, who include Democrats and Republicans, point out that the debtors are shirking their tax obligations and that collecting from them will add to the Treasury’s coffers. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the new debt-collection program had the potential to gain a net $2.4 billion over the next 10 years.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/business/dealbook/taxes-debt-collection-internal-revenue-service.html

[Fresh_Start]

1. Can they camp out at the White House, Mar-a-lago and Trump Tower?

I'm sure there are deadbeats in residence at those locations.

[ck4829]

2. Debt collectors respond: "Hey where are all the files with names that begin with the letter T?"

[2naSalit]

3. Another example of the desired privatization system.....nt

[vlyons]

5. Yep - Republicans further privatize gov functions for profit to their buddies

I don't know which this shows more - the complete venal criminality or the stupidity of Republicans. How much of the collected taxes will be skimmed off to line the pockets of debt collectors? How many corrupt debt collectors will pose as working for the IRS, but aren't?

Republicans could have just hired more employees and changed some rules about calling, contacting tax debtors. But nooo. They would rather seize the opportunity to make money off the gov.

US gov - of the criminals, by the criminals, for the criminals

[notdarkyet]

8. They are going after student loans, too. I got a call from a collector, and I don't have any

Student loans.

[Ohio Dem]

18. So did I.

I have never had a student loan, either.

[Plucketeer]

9. Exactly! nt

[ProudLib72]

4. So they've caught on to the inevitable

and are hurriedly scrounging for funds to offset Chump.

[Sunlei]

6. net $2.4 billion over the next 10 years. and 50+ billion to 'for profits' in fees & bonus.

[notdarkyet]

7. They sent my sister a bill for $8000 over an ira the bank cashed and held over Christmas holiday

In a safe deposit box when she moved to Oregon and promptly put the money in another ira. She has good accountants , so we'll see. She has always paid her taxes unlike some people.

[JudyM]

11. That shouldn't be a problem - she'd have 60 days to roll it over. Unless she had another rollover

that year.

[notdarkyet]

12. She took five days. Just shows the length they are going to to find money. They

Sent a threatening letter and gave her a month to pay.

[JudyM]

17. Unless there's some weird wrinkle, she shouldn't even need a lawyer - the redeposit evidence speaks

for itself.

[Doreen]

10. I got one of those calls a year ago. I hung up and called my brother

who is a tax lawyer. He told me I was right to hang up on them because it was a scam. A lot of those scams were going on last year. For years I had Liberty Tax do my taxes for free because i worked for them as a waver ( yes, I dressed up like lady liberty. ) The last few years when I was working elsewhere I had my brother do them. Now that I no longer work I will do them myself because the only reason to do them is to keep record in case the government tries to screw me.

[forgotmylogin]

13. I wonder...

My friend worked for the IRS customer service department. If you owe back taxes and don't talk to them, after a while they can garnish your wages at 100% till you do talk to them. My neighbor was unemployed, and she had a rude awakening when she deposited a check intended for rent and it was all taken by the IRS. They can I guess "garnish" your bank account too.

That isn't difficult. Unless the person they are after doesn't have a job or a bank account.

I wonder if they might just have decided it was more economically feasible to sell off some long overdue tax bills from people who've consistently evaded them for amounts that aren't too significant ($2000 or less?) Chasing down people getting paid under the table and not maintaining bank accounts perhaps might have been costing the IRS more resources than it was worth to have their own people on it. (Their customer service rep employees are a government job starting just under 30k/year - MUCH higher than what debt collection employees make.)

Usually, that's *why* companies turn to debt collection services. They've exhausted all of their resources to collect and it's no longer worth it to keep pursuing, so they sell the debt to someone else for a fraction of what it actually is to make some money back.

I highly doubt the IRS is stopping debt collection completely.

[KWR65]

14. Will they accept iTunes gift cards as payment like the scammers do? n/t

Over the years there have been telemarketing scammers that claim they are from the IRS and demand payment with iTunes gift cards and Greendot prepaid cards.

[More_Cowbell]

15. More money for DeVos's family's collection agency

That swamp is SO CLEANED OUT

[lostnfound]

23. Maybe more "big data" for the likes of Cambridge Analytic or for Russian hackers

It's a reach, I know, but the absurdity of reality just keeps growing

[duncang]

16. Yep, this won't end well

The scammers will be out in force if they pass this.

[TexasBushwhacker]

20. That's the first thing I thought n/t

[jmowreader]

19. I don't think this is going to work

For years we've told people, "if someone calls you and says they're from the IRS they're a scammer, so tell them to FOAD and hang up on them." (I wonder if today's kids are aware of how much we lost when cell phones took away the ability to slam down the phone on a scammer. But anyway...) Now we'll have real people from the IRS calling; people will assume these guys are scammers too.

[6000eliot]

21. Courteousy of the Scofflaw In Chief.

[llmart]

22. They might want to start with Dumpty trump...

He's probably cheated the IRS in millions over the years.