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In reply to the discussion: I.R.S. Enlists Debt Collectors to Recover Overdue Taxes [View all]forgotmylogin
(7,492 posts)My friend worked for the IRS customer service department. If you owe back taxes and don't talk to them, after a while they can garnish your wages at 100% till you do talk to them. My neighbor was unemployed, and she had a rude awakening when she deposited a check intended for rent and it was all taken by the IRS. They can I guess "garnish" your bank account too.
That isn't difficult. Unless the person they are after doesn't have a job or a bank account.
I wonder if they might just have decided it was more economically feasible to sell off some long overdue tax bills from people who've consistently evaded them for amounts that aren't too significant ($2000 or less?) Chasing down people getting paid under the table and not maintaining bank accounts perhaps might have been costing the IRS more resources than it was worth to have their own people on it. (Their customer service rep employees are a government job starting just under 30k/year - MUCH higher than what debt collection employees make.)
Usually, that's *why* companies turn to debt collection services. They've exhausted all of their resources to collect and it's no longer worth it to keep pursuing, so they sell the debt to someone else for a fraction of what it actually is to make some money back.
I highly doubt the IRS is stopping debt collection completely.