Impose a penalty on the PCA for requesting more than one such payment without returning the case to the IRS andĬ. Revise PDC procedures to require IRS review of all PCA cases in which the taxpayer made more than one payment that did not fully pay the liability and was not made pursuant to an IA, to determine whether the PCA requested more than one payment from a taxpayer who can make payments, but cannot fully pay the liability within the Collection Statute Expiration Date (CSED) and if so:ī. The SSA is able to identify SSI recipients, and TAS is willing to assist the IRS in entering into a data sharing agreement with the SSA to obtain that information.ĪDOPTED, PARTIALLY ADOPTED or NOT ADOPTED: Partially Adopted TAS RESPONSE: The National Taxpayer Advocate applauds the IRS for honoring its 2017 commitment to exclude SSDI taxpayers from the PDC program. The IRS has provided PCAs with guidelines for returning cases where a taxpayer receives income from SSI or SSDI payments. SSI is not reported to the IRS and the Social Security Administration (SSA) has indicated they cannot provide such information. In January 2019, a Unified Work Request was submitted to our IT function to allow us to identify and systemically exclude SSDI recipients from PCA inventory. IRS RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATION: The IRS only receives SSDI benefit information via Form 1099-SSA. Work with the Social Security Administration to identify recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income and exclude those taxpayers’ debts from assignment to PCAs. Thus, it appears the IRS could exclude other categories of taxpayers from the PDC program but declines to do so, despite data that show how the program burdens taxpayers who are likely in economic hardship.ĪDOPTED, PARTIALLY ADOPTED or NOT ADOPTED: Not Adopted The IRS states that it does not have the statutory authority to exclude from the program taxpayers whose incomes are below their ALEs, yet it already excludes taxpayers whose accounts are in Currently Not Collectible (CNC) status and proposes to exclude those who are SSDI recipients, categories of taxpayers that are not among the statutory exclusions.
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 6306 specifies the accounts that are required to be assigned to private collection agencies, and also provides for some exclusions. TAS RESPONSE: The National Taxpayer Advocate recognizes that the IRS is required to outsource the collection of some tax debt. There are procedures in place for PCAs to return accounts where the taxpayer states they are unable to pay.
Therefore, the IRS will not implement this exclusion. The law does not exclude taxpayers whose incomes are at or below allowable living expenses.
IRS RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATION: Congress defined the debts that must be collected under qualified tax collection contracts in Internal Revenue Code (Code) section 6306(c) and those that may not be collected under such contracts in Code section 6306(d). Exclude from assignment to PCAs the debts of taxpayers whose incomes are at or below their allowable living expenses.