Surprise the Service’s private debt-collection program is off to a shaky start.
A 2015 law called for the agency to turn over many inactive tax receivables to private debt collectors in an effort to recoup overdue taxes owed by taxpayers.
The IRS began the program last spring, and it’s already receiving a boatload of criticism.
For example, a report by IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate claims IRS is spending more funds to run the program than it receives in overdue taxes collected by the initiative. The
Advocate also stated that debt collectors are disproportionately going after low-income taxpayers.