Following up on Meg's post about IRS - Congress decided this was a good idea, it's part of the PATH Act. -- (edited)
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The collection actions will only be for old debt. Taxpayers will get a letter ahead of a call. The agencies doing the collecting do not have enforcement authority. They cannot set up payment arrangements. They cannot levy bank accounts or apply liens (actions the IRS may have already determined won't help, which is why the IRS stopped taking collection action).
Basically, these are balances that the IRS has determined are uncollectible. Taxpayers get annual reminder notices that they owe. Interest accumulates and collection action can start up again any time within the 20 year statute of limitations for collection. For some reason, Congress decided that the IRS wasn't being aggressive enough so came up with this plan.
The IRS lobbied against using outside collectors because it's never worked.
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