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Washington, D.C.— The leader of the largest independent union of federal employees blasted a proposal supported by the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at a congressional subcommittee hearing today that would allow private-sector collection companies to go after tax debt and be paid 25 percent of what they collect.

“After subjecting IRS employees to mandatory firing for relatively minor offenses and cutting the enforcement budget, Congress now seems shocked that collections are down,” said National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley. “But what is really shocking is the proposed solution--using private collection companies which will be paid up to 25 percent of what they collect.”

The proposal was supported at a House Ways and Means Subcommittee hearing by Robert Wenzel, acting IRS Commissioner.

This is in direct contradiction to provisions in the IRS Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 that prevents the amount of collections from being considered in any IRS employee evaluation specifically to prevent overly aggressive collection techniques, as was pointed out at today’s hearing by a representative of the tax section of the American Bar Association.

“The IRS restructuring act also makes the federal government liable if IRS employees misuse confidential taxpayer information. The new proposal would lift any government liability for contractor abuses,” Kelley said. “This is shocking.”

The IRS can do this work for less cost than private contractors, Kelley said, and Congress needs to give it the resources to do this job in a way that protects taxpayer rights.

NTEU represents some 150,000 federal employees in 29 agencies and departments, including 98,000 employees of the Internal Revenue Service.