In the last 44 years, we have seen little change in the attitude or position of the IRS towards collection of taxes owed.\u00a0 The IRS is just an extension of our federal government.\u00a0 It is a huge bureaucracy and the culture within the IRS is very slow to change.<\/p>\n
What changes is the areas of emphasis in their work.\u00a0 They will try different systems and strategies but they always come back to what has worked in the past.\u00a0 For example, the IRS has been contracting with outside private debt collection agencies.\u00a0 If you have absolute power to take someone\u2019s property and wages, why would you even think that another collector without those powers could do better?\u00a0 It was doomed to fail from the start.<\/p>\n
The IRS will replace the private debt collection agencies by hiring over 2000 new collection officers in 2022.\u00a0 These new bill collectors hired by the IRS have the power to file liens, levy wages and seize property.\u00a0 Most will have the ability to do extensive investigations and they will likely make their first contact with you at your home or business.<\/p>\n
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said, \u201cI believe this work is best done by IRS employees, and I believe we have strong support from the Administration and the Congress for increased IRS enforcement resources going forward.\u201d\u00a0 Some clients interpret \u201ckindler and gentler,\u201d to mean the IRS will make it easier to pay or let you pay less than your fair share.\u00a0 Kindler and gentler was just mask.\u00a0 It is the same tiger behind the mask and as I have said many times, \u201cwhen your head is in the mouth of a tiger, say nice tiger.\u201d<\/p>\n
We do not know how the IRS will place these new collections officers.\u00a0 Will they go towards local enforcement by hiring more Revenue Officers or towards centralized collections by hiring more personnel at the Automated Collection Service?\u00a0 Now that we are more than half way through 2022, we still do not see any significant change because of the number of new personnel hired by the IRS.\u00a0 That is understandable since it takes about two years before they are turned loose on taxpayers.\u00a0 Right now most are acting in supportive roles.<\/p>\n