The Service’s private debt-collection program started up just last April. Surprise there are some lawmakers are calling for its demise.
The 2015 statute ordered the agency to turn over many inactive receivables to private debt collectors in an effort to recoup overdue taxes owed by taxpayers.
Granted the IRS has tried this approach twice in the past, but it failed because it lost money, not to mention putting people’s private data at risk and generated lots of complaints from taxpayers.
In addition, because collectors are authorized to call the debtors after sending written letters, there are concerns that taxpayers will think collectors who call them are scammers and not legitimate. As advertised by the IRS themselves stated that they never call taxpayers, and calls are from scammers.
This plan was not well thought out before implementation, in my opinion.