GREAT! at W's urging IRS now can use debt collectors

[underpants]

Gee I wonder who they will go after first? :think:

Actually this 25% commission thing might make them go for the big cheats first but no information is given on what data will they will be given.



http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/Avoidanaudit/P97020.asp

The tax man and the debt collector team up


The federal government could pay for the entire war in Iraq -- and have more than $100 billion to spare -- if only the IRS could collect all the back taxes that are currently owed.

But the agency doesn’t currently have the staff to fully pursue the debt that’s considered collectible, which the IRS estimates constitutes up to $112 billion of the total $280 billion owed.

So Congress, at President Bush’s urging, has given the IRS the ability to hire private debt collectors as part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. The collectors will get to keep up to 25% of any tax debt they manage to reap.

[Bluebear]

1. And I bet they call Bombay & Calcutta Debt Collection Co.

[ladybugg33]

2. It's called "outsourcing" government work.

:shrug:

[Paradise]

3. golly gee willickers, shouldn't everyone know about this?

isn't this just peachy-keen. :silly:

if they handle this the way they handled abu ghraib, we're in for the ride of our lives! :crazy:

[tlcandie]

4. So, is this how they will come to our houses... blast the door down

and come in with guns in fire position... all hands up.. face down on ground... pilfer our belongings.... lock us up.. throw away the key and take our homes, cars and all valuables just like they do Iraqis?

Don't those fringed bounty hunters work with debt collectors? The Dyncorp types...

:shrug:

[underpants]

6. W-shrinking the govt. so it can slide through your mail slot

Oh wait! You are right they can just kick down the door.

[ThomCat]

5. So now...

Government databases will be made to private companies, who will be highly encouraged to use minimum wage people in phone banks to harrass poor people.

And there is no assurance that the debts are legitimate. The IRS is well known for demanding money and refusing to consider that they made a mistake. Will they improve the appeal process so that the collection agencies can be called off? Doubt it.

You know damned well they won't be calling rich people. You know they won't be calling corporate CFOs. All these big guys are going to say is "talk to my attorney" and the minimum wage flunkies are going to cut bait and go to the easier marks.

It's going to end up being poor people getting paid to harrass poor people. It's going to be the people who don't have tax attorneys who are going to get screwed.

AND, our tax records are now going to be out there in corporate hands.

[underpants]

7. Buttle

or was it supposed to be Tuttle?

"Brazil"

[ThomCat]

8. Um... Huh?

I really don't understand your response. I know that it's horrible when someone asks you to explain a reference, but can you explain the reference? :)

[underpants]

9. The extremely prophetic 1985 Film by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam

I HIGHLY recommend this movie if you haven't seen it before. Read the synopsis and see if it doesn't sound familiar and applicable here.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(movie)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(movie)#Synopsis

Set "somewhere in the 20th century", the world of Brazil is a gritty urban hellhole patched over with cosmetic surgery and "designer ducts for your discriminating taste". Automation pervades every facet of life from the toaster and coffee machine to doorways, but paperwork, inefficiency, and mechanical failure are the rule.

The story begins with Sam Lowry (Pryce), a low-level bureaucrat whose primary interests in life are his vivid dream fantasies to the tune of a 1940s big-band hit "Brazil", inadvertently getting involved with terrorist intrigue when his dream girl (Greist) turns up as the neighbor of a man ("Buttle") arrested as a terrorist on account of a typographical error ("Tuttle"). Other people in Sam's life include Harry (DeNiro), the terrorist who is actually a renegade heating technician; Jack (Palin), a family man and childhood friend of Sam's whose actual occupation is a government torturer; and Sam's mother (Helmond). It also features his nervous boss played by Ian Holm and a friend of his mother who undergoes a series of disturbing cosmetic surgeries.

A mysterious wave of terrorist bombings is met by an increasingly powerful Ministry of Information, whose jackbooted thugs never admit to arresting and torturing the wrong man. Sam's simultaneous pursuit of the truth and the girl draws him into the higher echelons of the Ministry, despite Jack's repeated efforts to warn him that his quest will inevitably bring Sam into more danger than he can cope with.

[Paxdora]

21. HaHaHaHaHaHaHa....etc!

That was great! (Love that flick, love that DeNiro, love that music!)

[Paxdora]

22. Subject: HaHaHaHaHaHaHa....etc!

That was great! (Love that flick, love that DeNiro, love that music!)

It was Tuttle, if i remember correctly, but the Gum'mint screwed up the spieling...

[Deja Q]

10. Corporate fathers blame welfare mothers. What else is new?

Oh well.

[ava27]

11. When I grow up

I want to be a tax collector so I can knock on Bushies door.
that's if they let me go anywhere near it.

[underpants]

13. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[ava27]

14. thank you

:hi:

[Zhade]

12. Who voted for this grade-A BULLSHIT? Will Kerry overturn this?

NT!

[MrSlayer]

15. Hmm explain why this is a bad idea.

What's wrong with hiring collectors to get these deadbeats to pay? I pay my taxes, I'm sure you guys do too, so why should we let other people get a free ride? I fail to see why this is bad.



edit: Skipped a word.

[underpants]

16. Because of the practices of the debt collection services

but more than that the ever present likelihood of the wrong people being targetted. The IRS is a mess-mostly orchestrated by the Right trying to "ease pressure" coming from the IRS which translated into the fat cats getting away and people qualifying for the Earned Income Tax Credit 17 times more likely to get audited (and necessarily have less money to hire representation) than those making over just the $250K benchmark.

This reaks to high heaven.

[oneighty]

18. And

A local collection company is advertising for help (Many positions) earnings to six figures possible. WOW!

180

[MrSlayer]

19. So I'm being silly in thinking that they will just get a list.....

of people who haven't paid and go after them regardless of who they are? I seem to have this problem of thinking things could be done in a fair manner. This can be as simple as my description.

[underpants]

20. In a perfect world no

but seriously do you trust this crowd with anything?

This is ripe for abuse.

[B. P. R. D.]

17. I.R.S. Employees Hate Bush.

All that talk about abolishing the I.R.S. and cutting pay raises can do that to people.