In a recent post to our tax law blog, we wrote about an order passed down from the Congress and president to the Internal Revenue Service. The tax-collecting agency is to once again try to make use of private debt collectors to go after unpaid federal taxes.
As we mentioned in that post, this will be the third time for the IRS to try private debt collectors. The past two efforts were launched in 1996 and 2006. It appears that this happens every 10 years, so here we are in 2016 looking at a third try.
In a recent article on the coming effort, Accounting Today said there are 7 things to know. The most important is that private debt collection is coming soon. Over the next two months, the IRS will authorize select debt collectors and then put them to work early next year.
The private tax bill collectors will pursue tax debt cold cases; accounts that the IRS no longer actively pursues. Some of the criteria used to decide which accounts will be handed off to the private collectors includes:
- The account must be more than 3 years old
- The Internal Revenue Service has not contacted the taxpayer for a least a year
- The taxpayer has not asked for relief (offer in compromise, collection process hearing, etc.)
- The taxpayer is 18 years old or above
- The taxpayer is not in a combat zone or federal disaster area
The IRS says none of its employees will used in the unpaid taxes collection efforts.
For those taxpayers who have failed to file tax returns or have failed to pay taxes, an experienced tax attorney can help get you back in compliance. At Robert J. Fedor, Esq., L.L.C., we do in-house tax preparation to help speed resolution of your tax issues.
