The Internal Revenue Service announced in 2017 that it plans to hire private collection agencies for certain overdue federal tax debts. There have been four companies selected to collect IRS debts, which are:
- CBE Group, 1309 Technology Parkway, Cedar Falls, IA;
- Conserve, 200 Cross Keys, Office Park, Fairport, New York;
- Performant, 333 North Canyons Parkway, Livermore, CA; and
- Pioneer, 2325 Daniel ZENKUS You Are Dr., Horseheads, NY
If you are contacted by any of these companies, you should understand and appreciate that each of them represents the government.
These private collection agencies will work on accounts where the taxpayer owes money but the IRS is no longer actively working to collect the accounts. Several factors contribute to the IRS’s decision to assign these accounts to private collection agencies, including cases where the debt is related to an older overdue tax account and where there is a lack of resources – for a variety of reasons – that prevents the IRS from working the cases.
The IRS will give each taxpayer and his/her representative written notice that the account is being transferred to a private collection agency. The agency will then send a second separate letter to the taxpayer and the taxpayer’s representative confirming this transfer.
Private collection agencies will be able to identify themselves as contractors of the IRS collecting taxes. Employees of these collection agencies must follow the provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and must be courteous and respect taxpayer rights.
Private collection agencies will not ask for payment on a prepaid debit card. Taxpayers will be informed about electronic payment options for taxpayers by reference to
IRS.gov/payments
. Payment by check should be payable to the US Treasury and sent directly to the IRS not to the private collection agency.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
