NTA Comments on IRS Private Debt Collection Program

National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) Nine E. Olson has responded to a press release from the Partnership for Tax Compliance, an organization of private debt collection agencies working IRS accounts. The press release quotes Partnership for Tax Compliance spokesperson Kristin Walter as saying, “Nina Olson has consistently made false and misleading claims about the IRS and its Private Debt Collection Program to advance her own political agenda.”
 
In her July 18 blog post, Ms. Olson affirms her belief that “the collection of taxes is a core governmental function that should not be outsourced to for-profit businesses that are paid on commission,” and questions the characterization of private debt collection as an expansion of the IRS’s “customer service capacity.”