IRS employees, fearing for jobs, slow collections

DAILY BRIEFING

IRS employees, fearing for jobs, slow collections

IRS employees, fearing they may lose their jobs if they are too aggressive about collecting unpaid taxes, have dramatically scaled back efforts to get money from delinquent taxpayers, The New York Times reported today.

In the six months ended March 31, the IRS seized property to pay for overdue taxes 108 times, down from 1,150 in the previous period the year before and 5,000 two years ago, the paper reported. Garnishments of paychecks and levies of bank accounts fell from 1.8 million two years ago to 458,000. Liens on property fell to 98,000 from 272,000 two years ago.

Under the 1998 IRS Restructuring Act, agency employees must be dismissed if they are found to have taken any one of 10 actions, including threatening an audit for personal gain, making false statements under oath or falsifying documents.

In March, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti sent a memo to all IRS employees saying that they need not fear for their jobs unless they willfully violate taxpayers' rights. But IRS tax collectors told the Times that many employees were concerned that they could be dismissed simply for making mistakes and were unwilling to be aggressive in collecting taxes.

"With this new law, if somebody says 'I'm not paying,' then we just say 'thank you' and leave," a tax collector in San Francisco told the paper.