Dems Target Private Tax Debt Collectors

House Panel Votes To Stop IRS From Hiring Private Firms To Go After Delinquent Taxpayers

(AP)  House Democrats renewed their attempt Wednesday to kill a program under which private debt collectors are commissioned to go after delinquent taxpayers. Ending the program would cost the government a half-billion dollars in the next five years, according to a congressional estimate.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted to repeal the Internal Revenue Service's authority to contract with private companies to collect federal income taxes. The legislation would make up the drop in revenue mainly by imposing a tax on people who renounce their U.S. citizenship, often to avoid paying taxes.

Committee member Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said collecting taxes was a core government function and turning that responsibility over to private collection agencies was "an insult to the American taxpayer and our federal tax system."

The 23-18 vote, along party lines, came several weeks after House opponents unsuccessfully tried to limit the program through another bill that provides money for Treasury Department operations.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, putting together its Treasury spending bill last week, also imposed restraints on the program.

The program, approved by Congress in 2004, began operations in September last year. The aim was to turn over to private agencies those lower-level delinquency cases, often in the $5,000 to $10,000 range, that the IRS doesn't have the manpower to pursue.

The IRS set up standards to assure that the private agencies do not have access to the personal records of taxpayers and to prevent taxpayers from harassment. The first 25 percent of money collected can go to IRS enforcement programs, while the collection agencies can claim as commission up to 24 cents of every dollar collected.

The Tax Fairness Coalition, which represents the collection agencies, said they have already collected $24 million in delinquent taxes and expect to recover between $1.5 billion and $2.2 billion in delinquent revenues over a 10-year period. The coalition said the initiative will recoup its start-up costs by the end of this fiscal year in September.

"It is absurd to kill a program for purely political reasons when it continues to return significant revenue to the U.S Treasury and taxpayers," it said in a statement.

But Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, a leading opponent of the program, welcomed the Ways and Means committee action, saying IRS employees can enforce tax laws more efficiently and that there is already evidence of private collectors harassing people over back taxes.

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that repeal of the program would result in revenue losses of $507 million over the next five years. The bill includes several measures to make up the lost revenue, including the revision of tax rules for expatriates that would bring in $376 million over five years.

[lorinkundert]

I would spend more time trying to come up with the story explaining to the public why they are paying taxes when there is no law that requires them to, a jury acquitted Tom Cryer on his evidence that no law does exist and the Supreme Court has defined what 'Income' is in Brushaber and many other cases. A paycheck from a private sector employer is not a gain or profit.

[brianbwb-2009]

The United States is a concept where freedom is the permission to organize with the exception of labor unions because... l8c6

Where in the constitution does it say "with the exception of labor unions because..."

This is not fact, it is your interpretation, and your subsequent suppositions are based on your non fact, and are themselves illusory and without empirical proof.

[pepperwood2]

CHECK this out. DON'T miss it! We're finally going to get our way. Hope to see you there. 2008 can't come, soon enough for me. History is in the making. Happy days are here again.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Pander to Homosexual Lobby. Debate to be devoted solely to gay issues. HRC is calling it a historic event.

The 90-minute event is scheduled for Aug. 9 in Los Angeles. According to HRC, all major Democratic and Republican presidential candidates were invited. The list of those who have accepted: Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.; Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.; former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.; former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"This event, which marks the first time in history the major presidential candidates will address a live GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) television audience."

Gravel published an open letter to the GLBT community.

"I promise to use the HRC forum to advance the gay rights agenda and educate the American public that gay rights is one of the great moral issues of our time," he said. "I will call upon all Americans to stop listening to the televangelists, psychologists and politicians and to do what is right & feels good".

In other words, Mackey said, the GAY AGENDA will come across loud and clear.

[twylacrat]

RandalDS: You are so right about this administration being a crime in progress. It began as a theft of the presidency. From there, it had no place to go but down.

[standlee5]

The biggest tax cheats seem to be those with the most money. Do you read the news?

Posted by kiwi_chick at 01:30 PM : Jul 19, 2007

Then why should any of us pay taxes? As far as I'm concerned if you don't pay taxes you don't have an argument.


Contribute to what? The stealing of our hard earn money to pay for their bloated expenses and earmarks. building bridges to nowhere while our roads look like *****. Posted by nadeau4201 at 01:18 PM : Jul 19, 2007

Well then why should any of us pay taxes. We either all pay or none pay. If you don't pay you're sucking off what the rest of us are paying.

[toldyouso21]

"It is absurd to kill a program for purely political reasons when it continues to return significant revenue to the U.S Treasury and taxpayers," it said in a statement."

Stop with the bs. no money is returned to the tax payer when delinquent taxes are collected and if the IRS can't or won't do the job itself, then it ought to remain undone. If they are too lazy to get off their butts and get the government's money then THAT is government's fault. when the private sector starts to do government work, there is little accountability and even more opportunities for abuse not only in what happens to tax payers but in milking us all for millions more in fees and payments. Remember Halliburton.

[lars008-2009]

hahahaha kerry's commie buddies said nobody was killed...

Kerry: No Bloodbath In Vietnam After US Redeployment
Sen. John Kerry said during a C-Span appearance that fears of a bloodbath after the US withdrawal from Vietnam never materialized. He says he's met survivors of the "reeducation camps" who are thriving in modern Vietnam. An award-winning investigation by the Orange County Register concludes that at least 165,000 people perished in the camps.
http://www.breitbart.tv/html/3274.html

[randalds]

Private tax collectors earn about 23% of every dollar they collect. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson has acknowledged to Congress it is about 8 times more expensive than relying on his own agency employees. Outsourcing government duties once again demonstrates the monetary gains, often benefits the private sector. It should be of noted 25% of the individuals who were contacted by the private tax collectors have filed complaints about the treatment they received during debt collections. There is something unsettling about the government hiring what amounts to %u201Cbounty hunters%u201D to do their jobs.

Posted by sshard at 02:41 PM : Jul 19, 2007

Couldn't have said it better myself. Outsourcing this job is nothing more then a kickback to private businesses that contributed to the Bush administration and the RNC. it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone though considering the Prescription Drug Program was the same for the Big Pharmaceutical companies and the Iraq war is the same for defense contractors and big oil companies. This administration is not an administration at all. It's a crime in progress that is methodically raping the US Treasury and the American taxpayers to the tune of trillions of dollars. Now they're even scr*ewing the taxpayers over in how they collect the taxes they're stealing. Bend over America! You've been Republicaned!

[l8c6]

The United States should not be viewed as such by it's borders. The United States is a concept where freedom is the permission to organize with the exception of labor unions because they get in the way of global entrepreneurs who create jobs and amass the large amounts of capital necessary to develop new emerging global markets.

International commerce must be given the very first serving from the proverbial table if a great global economy is to form. The world needs large concentrations of wealth to consolidate to cut out the red tape and inefficiency of all these separate silly nationalistic rants of the masses who comprise all these petty governments that slow down progress.

Globalization is the wave and business principles will end such sentimental wastefulness such as pouring money into aging infrastructure like New York or New Orleans. Dubai is an all new infrastructure and should be the next financial center as a matter of efficiency. Good business practice would maintain a manufacturing plant till the cost of maintaining overruns the profitability of the antiquated technology. The U.S. in its boundries is an old infrastructure and should only be maintained so long as profit outweighs overhead.

This is what is necessary for the new world order.

[l8c6]

This is another example of meddling into private affairs. Large concentrations of wealth should not be burdened by invasive governments.

What the world needs is a world court designed to protect the private capital of the burgeoning global economy. This thing of all these little governments that allow their citizens to play this silly nationalism isolationist game must stop.

Global private capital must fall under one jurisdiction and not have to be bogged down in all these separate courts.