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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
IRS Cleared to Begin Wasting Money Again
Earlier this year we blogged (here and here) about a new program authorized by Congress to allow the IRS to outsource its tax collection to private collection agencies. This program has caught the wary eye of a few folks in Congress, most of all Representative Steve Rothman (D-NJ).
Rothman recently successfully lead the charge against this policy, blocking the IRS from spending money on the program in the FY 2007 Treasury-Transportation bill recently approved by the House. Now all that is necessary to stop the program is successful passage in the final appropriations bill later this year.
Yet the IRS is storming ahead full steam. The Government Accountability Office recently confirmed they denied two bid protests against the IRS for contracts awarded under the program on June 14, and the IRS has immediately restarted work implementing those contracts. According to an IRS spokesman, the first accounts will likely be given over to the private collectors starting in September this year.
Because of Congress' lethargy in completing appropriations bills, it is highly likely by the time a final version of the provision stripping the collection outsourcing program's funding becomes law later this year, the IRS will have already awarded numerous accounts to the private agencies, wasting even more money.
Congress should act immediately to kill this program from moving forward and appropriately increase the IRS budget to allow government itself to collect its own taxes. It's more effective and efficient and is only one of many examples of a situation when government can do the job better.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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