[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 695 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 695
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the authority of
the Secretary of the Treasury to enter into private tax collection
contracts.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 24, 2007
Mr. Van Hollen (for himself, Mr. Rothman, Mr. Carnahan, Mr. Bishop of
New York, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mrs. Capito, Ms. Carson, Mr.
Chandler, Mrs. Christensen, Mr. Clay, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cohen, Mr.
Cummings, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Dingell, Mr. Doyle, Mr. Farr, Mr. Fattah,
Mr. Filner, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Hare, Mr. Hayes, Ms. Kilpatrick of
Michigan, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Lantos, Mr. LaTourette, Mr. Lewis of
Georgia, Mr. Manzullo, Mr. McHugh, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. Moran of
Virginia, Mr. Patrick J. Murphy of Pennsylvania, Ms. Norton, Mr. Obey,
Mr. Payne, Mr. Price of North Carolina, Mr. Ruppersberger, Ms.
Schakowsky, Ms. Schwartz, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Sires, Mr. Stark, Mr.
Stupak, Ms. Watson, and Mr. Waxman) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the authority of
the Secretary of the Treasury to enter into private tax collection
contracts.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Taxpayer Abuse and
Harassment Prevention Act of 2007''.
(b) Findings.--The Congress finds the following:
(1) The integrity of the Federal tax system is integral to
the efficient and ongoing functioning of representative
democracy.
(2) A pillar of exemplary citizenship is compliance with
the Federal tax code as it pertains to individual income taxes.
(3) Individual taxpayers voluntarily disclose sensitive
personal information to the Federal Government with the
expectation that such information will be utilized and retained
only by qualified, trained, and accountable personnel of the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
(4) Although the IRS has stated that there will be tight
restrictions on what information will be released to private
collection agencies, the statute places no restrictions on what
information may be released to private collection agencies.
(5) More than 26 million Americans have, since 1990, been
victims of some form of ``identity theft'' through
misappropriation and misuse of their personal information.
(6) Disclosure of taxpayer information to nongovernmental,
third party vendors will increase the risk of wrongful
disclosure of taxpayer information that results in higher
incidences of ``identity theft''.
(7) The IRS has already demonstrated its inability to
protect taxpayer data from unauthorized disclosure under
existing vendor contracts as documented in an internal report
by the Department of Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration.
(8) The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998
specifically prevents employees or supervisors at the IRS from
being evaluated or compensated based on how much they collect
in order to prevent incentives for overly aggressive and
abusive tactics.
(9) The compensation scheme for private tax collection
agencies is a recovery fee of up to 25 percent of funds
collected that will lead to overzealous and abusive collection
tactics against taxpayers.
(10) The Congress has previously rejected the use of
private tax collection agencies by canceling a pilot program in
1996 due to violations by private collection agencies of the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, inadequate protection of
sensitive taxpayer information, and a loss of approximately $17
million during the pilot program.
(11) A 2002 report by the IRS Commissioner to the IRS
Oversight Board identified an additional $30 billion in taxes
owed that could be collected annually by increased funding for
IRS personnel. A $9 billion annual increase in revenue could be
achieved by earmarking approximately $300 million to specific
IRS collection functions, for a return of $30 for every $1
spent.
(12) Due to the vagaries of the budget scoring process,
additional funds collected by IRS personnel do not ``score'' as
increased revenues.
(13) The use of private collection agencies was deemed a
``new tool'' to the IRS Commissioner that resulted in increased
revenue being ``scored'' to the Federal Government when such
activity would actually result in increased cost to taxpayers.
(14) Members of the House of Representatives were not
afforded the opportunity to specifically vote on this
significant policy change during consideration of H.R. 4520,
the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, in the 108th Congress.
SEC. 2. REPEAL OF AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO PRIVATE TAX COLLECTION
CONTRACTS.
(a) In General.--Subchapter A of chapter 64 of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 (relating to collection) is amended by striking section
6306.
(b) Conforming Amendments.--
(1) Subchapter B of chapter 64 of such Code is amended by
striking section 7433A.
(2) Section 7809(a) of such Code is amended by striking
``6306,''.
(3) Section 7811 of such Code is amended by striking
subsection (g).
(4) Section 1203 of the Internal Revenue Service
Restructuring Act of 1998 is amended by striking subsection
(e).
(5) The table of sections of subchapter A of chapter 64 of
such Code is amended by striking the item relating to section
6306.
(6) The table of sections of subchapter B of chapter 64 of
such Code is amended by striking the item relating to section
7433A.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.
(d) Termination of Reporting Requirement.--The reporting
requirement of section 881(e) of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
shall not apply after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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