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Washington, D.C.—In a report to Congress, the National Taxpayer Advocate—an important and independent voice on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) matters—has raised concerns about two issues seriously impacting taxpayers that are similar to objections voiced by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

In her fiscal 2006 objectives report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson warned that the agency’s explicit and primary focus on increasing enforcement activity, at the expense of customer service, “is very narrow.” Olson reiterated her serious reservations about the impact of IRS plans to cut back service by closing 68 Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) around the country.

Her congressionally-mandated report also identifies her “significant concerns” in a number of key areas dealing with the IRS plan to hire private sector debt collectors to pursue tax debts—including the training of contractor employees.

While the IRS wants to begin hiring debt collectors later this year, Olson said that “because private collectors will operate under rules of profit maximization rather than the IRS’ customer service based policy, private collectors may have less incentive to provide important taxpayer rights training to their employees.”

Along with training, Olson identified other problem areas with the privatization proposal, including policies and procedures, privacy and confidentiality, collection notices, and the complaint process.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, who noted that the IRS has a long history of failed contract oversight, said many of the concerns raised in the Taxpayer Advocate report “are right on the mark in addressing this program that puts taxpayers and their confidential financial information at risk.” Kelley has been leading the fight against it, warning of the serious risks to sensitive and personal taxpayer information in the hands of debt collectors.

NTEU has expressed its strong support for H.R. 1621, legislation that would revoke the authority of the IRS to use private collection agencies to collect tax debts. The bipartisan bill was introduced by Reps. Rob Simmons (R-CT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who have warned not only of the dangers of identity theft stemming from the loss of taxpayer information, but of harassment and abuse of taxpayers by debt collectors.

Kelley also is leading the fight against IRS cutbacks in customer service, which include—along with closing 68 TACs—the shutdown of three telephone call sites and a reduction of 15 hours a week in the time available for taxpayers to get telephone help from IRS employees.

Taxpayer Advocate Olson referred Congress to its own position expressed in the 1998 IRS Reform and Restructuring Act that the IRS is far more than an enforcement agency—that it must serve all taxpayers. “Thus,” she said, “the IRS should specifically state that its primary organizational goal is to increase voluntary compliance” with the tax laws.

“Rather than looking for ways to reduce services and assuming no impact to compliance as a result of these service reductions, we should be studying what factors make it easier or more difficult for taxpayers to comply,” Olson said.

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