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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Union fights renewed tax collection plan

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A public employees union is fighting a bipartisan effort in Congress to force the Internal Revenue Service to hire private contractors to collect some delinquent taxes.

The IRS stopped using private tax collectors in 2009 after determining that agency employees could do a better job. The National Treasury Employees Union said the program failed in the past and should not be forced on the IRS.

“We have been down this road before and the private companies failed on many levels,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said.

The Senate Finance Committee passed a bill two weeks ago that included an amendment requiring the IRS to revive the program. The amendment was offered by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. It was accepted without opposition.

“The beauty of this program is it would reduce the deficit and bring in more federal dollars while at the same time adding federal jobs,” Schumer spokesman Matt House said in an email.

“This program would likely add, not subtract, jobs because the work that would be done would be on cold cases that the current work force doesn’t examine and likely will not ever get to,” House said.

A portion of the revenue collected would go to the IRS for enforcement activities.

The IRS has faced significant budget cuts in recent years. Last year, the agency had fewer enforcement agents than at any time since at least the 1980s. This year, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the numbers will decline.