The IRS has been around for a very long time, and it’s hard
to imagine a world in which it doesn’t exist. However, if Senate Republicans
had their way, that’s exactly what we’d have.
Senate Republicans are angling to get rid of IRS agents and
to replace them with private debt collection agencies. Democrats and many
others, including some fellow Republicans, think this is a horrible idea.
Those who are against it cite the bad reputations of collection agencies, which
are often known for harassing and intimidating consumers and their family
members, or forcing people into paying debts that they don’t
actually owe.
Opponents of this idea also point to the fact that, in the
past, efforts to make tax collection a private, not federal, matter have ended
up being costly for the government. Similar efforts, enacted in 1996 and 2006,
have cost the federal government $17 million and $4.5 million, respectively.
These losses are usually due to the fact that those who owe
back taxes don’t often have the money to pay them, which means all those
high-cost efforts to collect them privately end up being for naught. While
there’s been no decisions as of yet, there is a chance that private tax
collection might be tried once again, but only time will tell.
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