If you have an old balance due with the IRS and have not heard from them in a while, well, wait till the spring. The IRS has just announced the companies that it will be turning old receivables over to. The winners are:
CBE Group 1309 Technology Pkwy Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Conserve 200 CrossKeys Office park Fairport, NY 14450
Performant 333 N Canyons Pkwy Livermore, CA 94551
Pioneer 325 Daniel Zenker Dr Horseheads, NY 14845
Given the sad and deteriorating state of IRS collections, this move is probably a free lunch for the government, since the accounts would likely otherwise expire with the ten-year statute of limitations on collections. The IRS will send written notices to taxpayers and representatives that their accounts are being transferred to a collection agency. The private collectors will be able to identify themselves as contractors of the IRS.
The legislation that created this program requires that the contractors make nice with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the like. They will not ask for payment on a prepaid debit card. The IRS will continue to keep warning taxpayers about scams and provide tips for protecting themselves.
Now that this is starting to look real, I’m going to have to study what the real powers of the collection agents will be. If they can’t issue liens and levies and the like, it may be that people can tell them to go pound sand and wait for the case to be kicked back to somebody who can do something before the ten-year clock runs out. On the other hand, if they can approve expedited offers in compromise, it might be worthwhile dealing with them. We’ll see.
I suspect that this program will end up looking good as it grabs some low hanging fruit. I will be doing a more detailed post later this week, but this announcement just came out.