IRS Chooses Three Firms for Tax Collection

To follow up on the March 1 post about private collection of Federal taxes, the Internal Revenue Service has awarded three companies out of 33 bidders-- the CBE Group of Waterloo, IA; Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson of Austin, TX and Pioneer Credit Recovery of Arcade, NY--contracts for collection. A second phase will take place by 2008 and will involve up to 10 private businesses. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson asserts that safeguards are in place for the collections: the private companies will be closely monitored; employees have taken a required training session; they are required to follow IRS guidelines on taxpayer protection and privacy rights and firms will be only be assigned cases whether the tax has not been disputed. The IRS hopes to collect over $1 billion in additional taxes through the collection agency program.