|
From the Miami Herald, Monday, April 21, 2008:
News from our Department of Poetic Justice: On April 15 -- the tax filing deadline -- the House of Representatives voted to bar the Internal Revenue Service from using private debt collection agencies to gather unpaid taxes. The measure would shut down a money-wasting IRS program that hires private firms to find delinquent taxpayers and collect debts. Problem is, the program costs more than the money that is collected.
Yes, you read that right. According to testimony in Congress this month, the IRS has spent about $75 million to run this program and collected a net $27 million -- "and that's after paying $7.7 million in commissions," according to U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.
Since the program began in 2004, taxpayers have lodged 1,500 complaints related to it with the office of National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, the IRS ombudsman. Last year, she told Congress that private collection should be eliminated and the task turned over to the IRS.
Unfortunately, the program has support in both the Senate and White House, where defenders say that repeal would result in a loss of $600 million. That's because the IRS has said that without the program it would simply forgo chasing tax scofflaws in order to focus on bigger tax cheats and corporate tax fraud.
That's a false choice -- and a great example of Washington logic. Congress should give the IRS the resources to go after all tax cheats, big and small, and order IRS agents to do the job. The private collection program is poorly conceived and poorly executed. It costs taxpayers more than it's worth and should be shut down.
|
