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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees today described as “right on the mark” Sunday’s lengthy New York Times article about the high costs and dangers to taxpayer rights of the IRS plan to hire private sector debt collectors to pursue tax debts. The planned start-up date for the project is Aug. 31.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said the Times report “highlights and underscores the same criticisms raised about this program not only by NTEU, but by an increasing number of members of Congress, by the IRS’s own National Taxpayer Advocate and by two former IRS commissioners—Sheldon Cohen and Donald C. Alexander.”

The NTEU president, who has been leading the fight against the IRS plan to pay private debt collectors up to 24 percent of the money they collect, agreed with the article’s assessment of the program as both high-cost and a risk to the privacy and safety of personal taxpayer information.

The article points out that no one in the IRS has yet to effectively dispute the data advanced by former IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti that it would be much more cost-effective to use IRS employees to pursue these taxes.

The newspaper said that while the government probably would net $1.1 billion over 10 years from private debt collectors, that amount is only a tiny fraction of the $87 billion that could be collected over the same period if the IRS hired additional revenue officers, as recommended by former Commissioner Rossotti.

The Times report also addresses the greater potential for taxpayer abuse under the outsourcing plan.

“IRS employees are dedicated professionals committed to a career in public service,” the NTEU leader said, “and they are fully aware of the penalties associated with the mishandling of taxpayer information. The debt collection industry is well-known for its high turnover rate, and clearly its employees won’t approach the taxpayer data with the same concern.”

NTEU has published tips for taxpayers in the event they are contacted by a debt collector, along with a sample letter taxpayers can use to work with the IRS instead of a debt collector on its taxpayer web site at www.nteuIRSwatch.org.

NTEU represents 94,000 IRS employees.