Like springtime weeds in the garden, the idea of collecting federal tax debts through private collectors pops up with regularity. Recently, it has popped up again as a part of the Expiry legislation even though it has nothing to do with the extenders that bill primarily addresses. Whatever statistics opponents use as weed killer for this idea have failed to stop it from returning for the third decade in a row. I will examine the newest version of the idea and explain why it needs to go away with the hope that additional funding for real tax collectors working at the IRS will replace it.
It surprises me that a Congress that seems to like to lodge new programs at the IRS not central to its mission that soak up its resources and keep it from mission critical programs cannot see a better path to collecting the taxes owed to the United States. The Collection function of the IRS has some issues with which I could take exception but generally does an excellent job at collecting the taxes owed. Assigning debt collection of federal taxes to private debt collectors diverts resources better spent providing proper staffing to the Collection function at the IRS creating a broader system impact than measured and subjects taxpayers to collection by individuals with less training, accountability and proper incentives.
read more...The National Taxpayer Advocate has long fought against private debt collection. During the most recent period of private debt collection from 2006-2009, it was regularly a point of discussion in her annual report to Congress. Those reports contain many thoughtful arguments and statistics supporting the position that private debt collection does not work as well as collection by the IRS. On May 13, 2014, she wrote a 21 page letter to several members of Congress detailing again the arguments against private debt collection. Her letter contains twelve reasons why Congress should not adopt private debt collection and ten suggestions regarding the current proposal. I will not recount all of her arguments here and recommend the letter if you have an interest in this issue.
My concerns about the proposal fall into four broad categories mentioned above: training, accountability, system impact and proper incentives. I will mention each in turn. As the director of a low income taxpayer clinic, I also want to mention that I think the proposal will fall heavily upon the group that I represent. The types of accounts given to private debt collectors generally involve relatively low liabilities and frequently include the accounts of low income taxpayers. This group already enters into installment agreements regularly that are not sustainable. Private debt collectors will likely put extra pressures on these taxpayers that will yield little revenue but further burden the tax system.
Training
Despite the IRS’s lack of funds for training, it still provides significant training to its employees. Collection of federal taxes involves the application of many special statutes, regulations and rulings. The IRS not only trains its front line employees but has special units and counsel available to answer the more difficult questions. Understanding the nuances can take many years. I do not believe that the private debt collectors will understand the nuances of the law or policies adopted by the IRS to allow the law to work most efficiently.
Sitting in a classroom listening to someone tell you the legal concepts underpinning federal tax collection will not imbed these principles in the minds of the employees of the private debt collection companies. It takes real world experience over a period of time. The biggest part of the training comes through doing. Bringing in private collectors means a brand new class of collectors receives numerous accounts to collect with only a rookies experience on how to do it. The person sitting next to the private debt collector will be another rookie and not someone with experience.
The IRS has the infrastructure to absorb more collection employees. It has the training modules and the experienced workers to train the new ones and sit beside them as they learn. If we want the best trained individuals collecting federal taxes, use the system already in place and provide it with the funding necessary to work. Building a parallel system will give us two weak systems with undertrained employees.
Accountability
Private debt collection employees will not operate with the same system of accountability that exists for federal employees. In 1998 Congress imposed some serious consequences to IRS collection employees engaged in certain behaviors, which I discussed in a post in November found here. Those consequences will not apply to the private work force. While I disagree with the way Congress went about establishing the rules for accountability in the 1998 Revenue Reform Act through the adoption of the never codified section 1203 of that legislation, the provisions in that legislation represent a strong statement by Congress of the special nature of the IRS. No other agency has that type of accountability statement leading to essentially automatic termination. If Congress believes that the actions of IRS employees have such significance in the tax collection area that actions of the type enumerated in 1203 require termination, why would it put those same functions in the hands of individuals not subject to those consequences?
The Congress that passed 1203 had a deep concern for the special nature of the IRS and its functions. Placing those functions in the hands of private parties greatly reduces the protections Congress sought to build with that legislation. Even though 1203 is deeply flawed, it serves as recognition of the importance of the bond between tax collection and the public. It creates strong remedies for breaches of proper conduct by government officials because of the importance of that bond. Placing those same duties in the hands of private parties significantly removes the accountability Congress sought to create in this important relationship.
Systems Impact
The National Taxpayer Advocate does an excellent job of demonstrating that the last round of private debt collection lost money for the government. I do not think she went far enough in describing the loss. Every time a system gets established it has downstream consequences. The private debt collection system puts a burden on the downstream functions at the IRS not captured by the data I have seen. This burden has a cost that also needs to be measured, or at least considered, in the decision to hire private debt collectors.
When a person in the federal tax collection function takes an action, whether it is a private collector or an IRS employee, it can have an impact on the next function or functions down the line. Debt collection does not stop with the first contact. Debt collection frequently impacts the employees in the Taxpayer Advocate Service who must deal with taxpayers claiming hardship or other consequences of the collection activity. My perception is that TAS bears the brunt of actions by private debt collectors but their actions could also implicate Appeals or Counsel.
Aside from the cost based on individual case action, the IRS needs to deal with the contractual and monitoring of the private debt collectors also places a burden on the system. The National Taxpayer Advocate does talk about this cost and provide useful details.
Proper Incentives
As with 1203, Congress has also spoken about proper incentives for IRS employees. The laws passed require the IRS to take care in evaluating employees to not rely upon certain indicators. High on the list of matters the IRS cannot consider in evaluating collection employees is how much money the employee brings into the federal coffers. So, Congress has specifically told the IRS not to evaluate its employees based on the amount they collect but to use other measures in preparing their annual evaluations. This makes sense. If IRS employees get evaluated based on the amount of money they bring into the coffers, they have an incentive to collect as much as possible without thinking of the consequences on the individuals from whom they collect. You can imagine that motivated IRS employees could think of many ways to collect as much as possible if the emphasis is on how much they collect and not on whether they do so properly. We might make an analogy here to the alleged incentives on local police forces that result in end of the month activity.
While Congress has properly constrained the IRS from using dollars collected as the appropriate basis for rewarding employees, private debt collection specifically uses that as its foundation. Private debt collectors will get a percentage of what they collect. They will not get a percentage of the write down of debt that needs to be placed in currently not collectible or needs an offer in compromise. They have no incentive to look for the correct result if that result drives them to something other than the collection of more dollars. As with the policy behind 1203, it is difficult to understand why Congress would feel it necessary to specifically impose guidelines on the IRS to keep it from using dollars collected as a measurement point for its employees and then hire private debt collectors with precisely the opposite approach.
Conclusion
I give just a few examples why I think private debt collection has little to offer. Putting more money specifically directed to the Collection function of the IRS would bring in more revenue and do so with the proper safeguards. Why must we debate this every decade? Fund and train IRS employees so that we achieve the maximum revenue with the proper regard for the people who owe. I want everyone to pay their taxes. I know that not everyone can do so. Striking the proper balance during the collection phase of a case requires careful consideration by the IRS and proper application of the law. Private debt collections will provide neither.
Why must we debate this every decade?
^^^This is the question I would like to see answered. History repeats, etc.
Let’s not be so naive as to consider this a topic for academic discussion. Rather, let’s follow the money. Who are the contractors that will profit from IRS collection privatization? The most familiar name I found in 15 minutes of Googling was SLM, which had an IRS contract back before 2009. You probably know them by their once and future name, Sallie Mae. They were not only in the business of loaning money to students of tax law and other majors; they were a collection agency. But they recently decided to spin off that business, to a former subsidiary called Navient.
Navient has a PAC. Who benefits from Navient’s PAC? Well, here are just a few names and amounts.
John Boehner 1/15/14 $5,000
Members of the Senate Finance Committee:
Sherrod Brown 7/9/13 $1,000
Tom Carper 2009 $3,500
Michael Bennet 2009 $2,000
Richard Burr 2008-2010 $5,000
Sherrod Brown 2009-2013 $3,000
Michael Enzi 3/23/07 $5,000
Robert Casey 2011-12 $7,000
Charles Schumer 2013 $1,000
Bill Nelson 2010-11 $2,000
Robert Menendez 2009 $2,000
Mark Warner 2007-08 $10,000
Chuck Grassley 2008 $1,000
Pat Roberts 2009 $2,000
John Cornyn 2008 $5,000
John Thune 2007 $1,000
Richard Burr 2008-10 $5,000
Johnny Isakson 2008-09 $3,500
Ron Wyden 2009 $3,000
And then there are the parties:
Republican National Committee 5/18/12 $15,000
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee 2013-14 $30,000
Navient is just one potential government contractor for IRS collections. Ours is the best government that money can buy. Don’t the people who have bought it, deserve some return on their investment?
Thanks for implying that I am a naïve academic. As someone who worked many years for the government and only a few years, so far, as an academic, this is wonderful. I am showing it to my colleagues at Villanova in an effort to prove I am at least moving toward becoming an academic.
Thanks also for the points you make. They are good ones. I think that the Real Politik views you express nicely compliment the policy issues presented by this issue. While I embrace the title naïve academic, I hope my shortcomings do not prevent me from agreeing with you that the policy issue I tried to point out will not overcome the desire to deliver some pork. Your comments highlight the drivers behind this issue. Perhaps those considering this issue will look at the drivers and the policy implications in deciding that it is a bad idea to impose private debt collection on the IRS.
I agree Bob. Just “follow the money”, as always.
Another example of nepotism, which George Washington and other American founding fathers warned against, is the recent Ukraine debacle. Turns-out that Biden’s son is managing international business relations for gas (and oil) in that region. Imagine? The “corporate interests”, via their puppet governments, have destroyed a nation (the Ukraine) in a battle over natural resources that neither has any right to own or otherwise profit from? We’re talking about mass murder and mass destruction, a moral issue (for those who don’t separate morality from business and government). What happened to “amicable relations w/all, entangling alliances w/none”?
Or how about the Bundy incident? Turns-out that the Harry Reid, federal Senator of Nevada, has a son who was brokering an energy business deal w/the communist Chinese government over real property that the feds claim is under their ownership, but in reality (based on fundamental law “property rights”) is held in trust by the feds, was long-ago supposed to be sold to Nevada who is supposed to hold it in trust for “the people of Nevada”, who in turn was supposed to be selling it off to the “people of Nevada”. But the battle for that falsely held “federal lands” has been on-going for decades, and not a peep in the mainstream media. So, we have a Nevada federal senator selling American land to the Chinese government while falsely hiding behind the law to maintain the appearance of legitimacy in the mainstream media. This sounds like one of Stalin’s wet-dreams!
There are many, many other examples of this rubbish, if one is willing to do a little research. The most disturbing part of it is the answers that the government peddles when they get caught w/blood dripping from their hands, and other people’s property tightly gripped in their fists.
The Old Testament (for those who still fear the One True God) has a historical account of Jezebel and Ahab trumping up charges to steal the family heritage from a citizen for Ahab’s vegetable garden. The result was not good for all concerned.
When business and government are corrupt, everybody loses … eventually.
It takes a special kind of psychopath to hide behind the law on a pretense (fraud), and destroy their own society and nation.
… Chris
The obvious solution is to have a Ukrainian Advocate inside the State Department who can …. who can …. she can write reports about it. Yes, that’s it, what we need are reports!