Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service.
Abstract
Under the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (AJCA, P.L. 108-357), the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has acquired for the second time in its history the
legal authority to hire private debt collection agencies (PCAs) to assist in the
collection of certain individual tax debt. The grant of authority grew out of a
proposal made by the Bush Administration in its budget request for the IRS in both
FY2004 and FY2005.
This report focuses on IRS’s current plan for hiring PCAs to collect delinquent
individual taxes and the policy issues it raises. It begins with an examination of the
scope of IRS’s authority to use PCAs under the AJCA and concludes with a
discussion of the main issues for Congress as it oversees IRS’s efforts to implement
and manage the private tax debt collection initiative. The report will be updated to
reflect significant legislative action and new developments related to the initiativ
