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Washington, D.C.—The increased productivity of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees, detailed in agency data reflecting the low—and declining—cost of collecting taxes, is one of the strongest arguments yet for providing the IRS with the full resources it needs to perform its work, the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said today.

“The IRS’s 2006 Data Book shows that IRS employees spent a mere 42 cents to collect each $100 in tax revenue in fiscal 2006,” a decline from the 46 cents per $100 of a year-earlier, said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley.

“This reflects favorably on the professionalism and dedication of IRS employees,” she said, “and provides further strong support for abandonment by the IRS of its misguided program using private sector debt collectors to pursue tax debts.”

The NTEU leader has been vocal not only in the union’s opposition to the tax debt privatization plan but in calling as well for an IRS budget, including more staffing, that supports both critical aspects of IRS tax compliance operations—customer service and enforcement.

Under the IRS tax debt privatization program, which began last September with three contractors, private collectors are paid up to 25 percent of the money they collect; the IRS has said it plans to expand the program to at least 10 such companies, despite the continuing opposition of NTEU and bipartisan members of Congress—and a call by the National Taxpayer Advocate for Congress to repeal the agency’s authority to engage in the program.

The IRS data report also showed that IRS employees collected more than $2.2 trillion in taxes and processed over 228 million tax returns during fiscal year 2006. And as part of their duties, agency employees answered more than 32.6 million toll-free calls from taxpayers seeking assistance with their returns.

“It is abundantly clear,” President Kelley said, “that no one can match the ability and efficiency of IRS employees when it comes to collecting the revenue the government needs to fund the broad range of programs and services the public wants, needs and deserves.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including about 94,000 in the IRS.