But, at a recent hearing, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said, My concern is that a private collections agency may engage in tactics that a government agency would not.

Should the IRS hire private tax collectors?

This isnt the first time our federal government has turned to private tax collectors. In 1996 and 1997, Congress let the IRS spend $13 million to test the use of private tax collectors. The collectors really didnt collect, however. They only helped the IRS locate and contact taxpayers. These collectors reminded them of their outstanding liabilities and suggested payment options. If the taxpayer agreed, he would be transferred from the private collectors to the IRS staff. The private collectors were paid a flat fee, regardless of what was actually paid to the IRS.

According to Treasury estimates, the initiative would generate an additional $46 million in revenue in 2004, $476 million during the five-year period ending in 2008, and as much as $1 billion by the end of 2013.

Anybody remember the old song, Theyre Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!"?

Worries about aggressive tactics

What about the fact that each IRS collection officer collects an average of $900,000 annually?

Alternatively, you can enter into an Installment Agreement. Thats a contract between you and the IRS for you to pay off your debt, with interest, over time. Use Form 9465 for the Installment Agreement. You can get this from the IRS Web site. This too, will stop the collection process.

First, why?

The interest in privatization is growing as a result of reductions in IRS budgets and staffing during the 1990s. The agency was limited in how ambitious it could be by a 1998 law that greatly restricted its agents activities. A major result of that decline has been soaring levels of uncollected taxes. The total is now $282 billion. Most of it is uncollectible, the IRS Oversight Board told Congress last week. Much of that money is not being collected from the wealthy and corporations. But a growing amount is owed by middle-class folks who realize the odds of getting audited are low, says Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N. D. "I think that as much as anything is giving fuel to this notion that 'I can cheat, no one will ever know.'"

The news sent shivers down my spine. Not only might the feds be coming after you, but now it looks like we might be getting a private army of tax bounty hunters putting you in their gun sights. Ive thought about what to do if you do get a call from Acme Tax Collections, but lets deal with two questions now.

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Doubt as to collectibility

As for the idea of private income tax collectors, why not just budget more for the IRS collection process? I agree with Rep. Pomeroy, D-N. D., that hiring contractors is an idea that, frankly, is not ready for prime time.

Is this something new in collections?

The pilot program was discontinued because the results were meager. The IRS collected an additional $3.1 million through the private collectors, but expenses were also $3.1 million.

Why cant the IRS do the job itself? Isnt the collection of taxes so inherently a government function that it shouldnt be delegated to the private sector? In addition to the constitutional issue of privacy, what about the constitutional issue prohibiting the delegation of a government function to a private agency?

President Bush had included a proposal for private collections in the administrations fiscal 2004 budget request for the IRS. H. R. 1169, which would implement the proposal, was introduced by House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chair Amo Houghton, R-N. Y., in March. A similar bill is pending before the Senate. While skeptics abound, no one has been able to derail the idea.

Doubt as to liability

I wouldnt waste time. You have two choices:

My skepticism is shared by others. Colleen Kelly, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, says the idea is risky in terms of things going wrong -- and it would be costly. She says it could lead to a gross invasion of the privacy of American taxpayers. Admittedly, she has an ax to grind because she believes IRS employees could do the work more cheaply.

A report by former IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti estimated that spending $296 million to hire more IRS compliance employees to focus on accounts receivable would result in additional collections of $9.47 billion in known tax debts per year -- a return of $31 for each dollar spent. In comparison, using private agencies would cost $3.25 billion to collect $13 billion -- a return of only $3 for each dollar spent.

Fewer audits equals more tax cheating

Maliye Bakanlığı bir sürü denetim elemanı, hesap uzmanı, kontrolör vs. alacağına ve bunların kimi zaman nazını veya egosunu çekeceğine, vergileri toplama işlerini ve kamu harcamalarını denetleme işlerini özel firmalara devretsin. Bunun için pilot bir il seçilsin ve orada bu özel denetim işi gerçekleştirilsin başarılı olunursa tüm Türkiyeye yaygınlaştırılsın . Özel denetim firmalarına binde oranda komisyon versin topladığı vergiden veya yapılan usülsüz harcamadan ve her sene bu özel şirketlere binde komisyonla sözleşme yapılıp devredilsin . Zaten bu tür özel denetleme şirketleri bir olumsuz hatalı davranış sergilerlerse bu milletin ağzı ve eli boş değil ne de medyanın eli boş icabına bakarlar gerekli yerlere durumu iletirler hiç şüphesiz. Çözüm üretmekten yoksunlaşmış ve kamburlaşmış yapısı ile Maliye 20. yüzyılın Ekonomisini ne vergilendirmekten ne de harcamaları denetlemekten oldukça uzak. Özellikle büyük şirketler mercek altına alınmalı bu yeni vergilendirme sisteminde.

But the situation is worse now. New IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson told Congress recently that tax cheats are taking advantage of the fact that the IRS cannot continually pursue each taxpayer who fails to pay a tax liability.

Immediately file an Offer in Compromise. This is an offer to pay the IRS, but on a reduced basis. It can be based on one of these three criteria:

Yes and no. By law, the IRS cannot hire out its tax collections without specific Congressional approval. But the idea of privatization of tax collection, sometimes called tax farming, has been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians, and has been used by the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans and the Italians and English in the Middle Ages. Private tax collection for real estate taxes is practiced today by most jurisdictions in the United States, and a number of states hire contractors to collect income taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service wants to hire private collectors to hunt down tax cheats. Skeptics worry about invasion of privacy, high cost and overly aggressive tactics.

The Basics

Economic hardship

Just the filing of the offer stops the IRS collection process in its tracks. By law, all collection activity, including any private collectors, must cease immediately while the offer is outstanding.

Pamela J. Gardiner, the Treasury Departments inspector general for tax administration, recently announced that the IRS wants to send 2.6 million delinquent taxpayer accounts annually to private collection companies.

You file Form 656 to make your offer. Its submitted with Form 433-A, which lists your assets, income, liabilities and expenses. You can download both from the IRS Web site .

By Jeff Schnepper

So, lets say Congress does give the IRS the OK to hire private collectors and you owe the IRS. What can you do to protect yourself from this potential hoard of private tax collectors at your door?

Fair enough, but what about the other side of the equation? The Houghton bill would let the private tax collectors keep up to 25% of the money they collect. How aggressive do you think theyd become with that kind of reward dangling before them? The IRS strongly insists the collectors will be prohibited from threatening or intimidating taxpayers. I must confess a bit of skepticism about this, but you never know.

The answer, apparently, is that the government is owed some $13 billion from individuals who would pay if asked or nudged. But it cant collect the money with its current staff. So its proposing to hire private collectors to bring in the cash in. The commission: 25% of whats owed -- about $3.25 billion.

And Nina Olson, the IRS Taxpayer Advocate, said, I have a level of discomfort with the concept of using private collection agencies based on my earlier professional experiences representing taxpayers in states that used them.