Warning! The IRS is Now Outsourcing Tax Debts

August 23rd, 2017 at 11:48 PM

The IRS is using 4 private collection agencies to collect inactive tax receivables.

If you nor the IRS has taken any recent actions to resolve your tax debts, the IRS may assign your case to one of these agencies.

Once your case is assigned, you MUST work with that agency, the IRS will provide no further assistance.

One potential benefit may be that the private collections agency can enter into a payment arrangement that the IRS may not have previously accepted.

The Collection Agencies

IRS announced in September, 2016 that they had contracted with the following private collection agencies

1. CBE Group of Cedar Falls, IA
2. Conserve in Fairport, NY
3. Performant in Livermore, CA
4. Pioneer in Horseheads, NY

Furthermore, if you receive correspondence from any other than these 4, its probably a tax scam

If you have an inactive tax receivable selected for this program, the IRS will mail you a letter (CP40), stating that you case has been assigned; in addition the private collection agency will also send a separate letter that confirms that transfer of your case. Both the IRS and the private debt collection agency will have a 10 digit identifier in place of your social security number that allows for authentication.

There are some other key elements of this program such as:

1. you are able to get rid of the private agency by written request, and have your account returned to the IRS
2. you may be able to structure a better arrangement with the private agency
3. the private agencies must follow the collection laws
4. the private collection agency cannot take enforcement actions such as issuing a federal tax lien

The is just a reminder that the IRS is always changing the way they deal with taxpayers.