IRS Collection Slows as Agents Fear Being Fired
The Internal Revenue Service has drastically slowed its efforts to collect unpaid taxes, partly because IRS employees fear being fired under a new law that broadly boosted taxpayers’ rights, officials said Tuesday.
“Very few people are going to take the risk that if you make a mistake you’ll be fired,” said Robert Tobias, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 92,000 IRS workers. “As a result, there is very little collection activity taking place.”
The IRS seized property for overdue taxes 108 times in the six months that ended March 31, compared with 1,150 during the same span last year and 5,000 seizures two years ago.
Garnishments of wages and levies on bank accounts dropped to 458,000 from 1.8 million two years ago, while liens on property dropped to 98,000 from 272,000.
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