Since 2004, when Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 6306 was enacted as part of the American Jobs Creation Act, the IRS has had the statutory authority to outsource the collection of tax debt. The IRS exercised this authority in its prior private debt collection program from about 2006 to 2009, but the program was ended due to concerns about its return on investment. Congress amended the statute in 2015, and the IRS is now required to outsource collection of “inactive tax receivables.” Even with this Congressional mandate, as I explained in my 2016 Annual Report to Congress, and my recently released Fiscal Year 2018 Objectives Report to Congress, I believe the IRS has overstepped its statutory authority in implementing its current Private Debt Collection (PDC) initiative. Read More